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PHOEBE STRONG COWEN. 



THE 



Herkimers and Schuylers 



AN HISTORICAL SKETCH 
OF THE TWO FAMILIES 



with Genealogies of the descendants of George Herkimer, the 

Palatine, who settled in the Mohawk 

Valley, N. Y., in 1721. 

BY 

PHOEBE STRONG COWEN, 



MOTTO : 

" He who looketh not backward to his forefathers will never look forward to his 
posterity." 




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ALBANY, N. Y. 
Joel Munsell's Sons, Publishers. 
1903. 






Gbls Uolume is 
affectionately ©eotcateb to tbe Afcemorg of nig ffatber, 

©eorge Strong, 

wbo was born at ©lb jfort Iberftimer, 

January, 1803. 






Englewooo, Chicago, 

Sanuarv, 1003. 






THE 



Herkimers and Schuylers 



INTRODUCTION. 



To those descendants of the Herkimers and Schuy- 
lers who may choose to peruse these pages I have 
this to say. I have in this work endeavored to trace 
the history and lineage of our ancestors for a period 
of nearly two hundred years, together with the causes 
or reasons which culminated in their transplanting 
from the eastern to the western shores of the broad 
Atlantic; and also to give a partial description of the 
very important part they have played in the past in 
the shaping of the history of our nation. 

In my quest for " Garcia," to. quote from our friend, 
Hubbard, of the Roy-crofters, I have gathered these 
scraps of history from every available source, and 
though not always finding what I sought, have 
found many things of interest. The "Garcia," for 
whom I sought was sometimes discouragingly elusive, 
though not hidden in the mountain fastnesses or 
Cuban prisons, was sometime so safely put away 
among the custodian's manuscript that no entreaty 
could bring it forth. Finding in my research that 
the public records of Herkimer county during the 
revolutionary period, had been destroyed by fire, 
when the old court-house was burned in 1834, I 



then learned that the church records covering the 
period from 1764 to 1794, kept by the Rev. Abraham 
Rosecranz, during his pastorate of the Stone church 
at the Fort, were in the possession of Mr. Peter Star- 
ring, of Little Falls, N. Y. The mother of Mr. Star- 
ring was a Rosecranz, and these church papers had 
been in possession of the family since revolutionary 
days. I wished to see the records of births and mar- 
riages of those connected with the Herkimer families, 
so went to Little Falls. I found that Mr. Starring 
had been some years dead, and the papers, supposed 
to be in possession of the family, I was told, had 
been given over to the keeping of the Herkimer 
Historical Society. Mr. Robert Earl, Jr., custodian 
of the historical manuscripts, kindly looked through 
the collection in search of what I wanted, although 
he was quite positive, before beginning the search, 
that he would not find what we sought, as he said the 
society had asked for the loan of the records in order to 
copy them, but had been refused. We found nothing 
but on further inquiry learned that the papers were 
still in the possession of the gentlemen at Little 
Falls, who would, on no account, allow them to be 
seen. 

It was previous to the celebration of the centen- 
nials of 1877, that I began gathering and noting 
down whatever scraps of information came in my 
way, whenever or wherever I found them, with no 
thought at the time except to gather such material 
together for my own gratification and the informa- 
tion of my own family and descendants. 

Old tales and legends from my grandparents, 
uncles and aunts, old letters and manuscripts in pos- 
session of members of the family, old-time tales and 



memories of the oldest living descendants to which I 
had listened with childish awe. Some documentary 
histories of the State of New York came in my way. 
I found them vastly interesting, they told me many 
things that whetted my appetite for more. Later an 
old volume of "Annals of Tryon County," a book 
which had been my father's, long since dead, too long 
ago for me to have asked of him any questions, but 
now I began to pore over these old books with great 
interest. Stories of the Old Fort by aunts and grand- 
mothers came to my mind. I began haunting libraries 
and book stores, searching genealogical records, old 
colonial histories, biographical encyclopedias and 
lists of revolutionary soldiers. 

It has required time and patience, but is a work I 
have thoroughly enjoyed, becoming more and more 
interested as time passed on. 

I have found the state library at the capitol at 
Albany, N. Y., an interesting place in which to spend 
days and hours in poring over old books. This 
seems to be an era of backward looking, every one 
wanting - to know something; of their forefathers. 

All who care for the glory of country, all who love 
to study the history of the events which have shaped 
our colonization, our government and our laws, can 
but look back with pride upon the story of our 
patriot ancestors. 

The command that we " honor our fathers," is not 
only a religious requirement but a great maxim of 
jurisprudence. Those who speak and think of 
patriotism and virtue, sow in their own minds, and 
those of others, these loyal traits, and this, in a 
great measure, goes toward shaping the characters of 
men, it renews the legends of the past, and stamps 



them upon the memory of coming generations. It 
is a duty we owe our forefathers, that the tales of 
their prowess, the dangers they incurred, and the 
wonderful lifting up out of it all into the nation we 
are to-day, should not be allowed to sink into the 
oblivion of forgetfulness. 

Much has been written and much has been told of 
the troublous times of those olden days, but there 
is much still to be dug from the debris of the past, 
and duly commemorated in song and verse, there is 
history everywhere. The beautiful valley of the 
Mohawk abounds in it, the old churches and houses 
and homes still standing, built when Britons ruled the 
land, and oft desolated by the torch and tomahawk 
of the savage Indian, are sacred in our eyes. Let us 
then teach our children, and our childrens' children 
the traditions of our ancestors. Let the mother, 
with glowing pride, tell unto her offspring what those 
of their own blood and lineage suffered and dared 
for their country's welfare; let patriotism glow at 
every hearthstone. 

The victory of Oriskany was the contribution of 
the German immigrants to American independence. 
Thomas Dunn English says: "The battle was 
important not only in its immediate, but in its remote 
consequences," Herkimer and his men ploughed the 
field, Schuyler sowed, tended and ripened the crop 
which Gage garnered. 

Among the many works I have consulted are 
Munsell's " Annals of Albany," Benton's Herkimer 
County, Stone's Life of Brant and Sir William John- 
son, The Border Wars and Frontiersman, Colonial 
New York, O'Callaghan's and Brodhead's Manuscript, 
law books, and books of records of marriages and 



7 

births, and old wills, Albany records with their quaint 
old Dutch names and stories handed down from 
mother to son for four generations past. 

A year ago I was fortunate in meeting one of the 
now oldest living descendants of the Herkimers, the 
venerable John Andrew Fox, of Cuba, Allegany 
County, N. Y., now in his eighty-seventh year. His 
mother was Dorothy (Dolly) Herkimer, the youngest 
child of Joseph Herkimer and Catherine Schuyler. 
They were the last of the Herkimers to occupy the 
old Stone House at the Fort, known in history as 
the Herkimer Mansion, built in 1740, and included, 
before the French and Indian War, in the Stockaded 
works called Fort Kourai by the Indians. The 
mother of Mr. Fox was born in the Old Fort in 1 788, 
and lived there until her marriage. He remembers 
distinctly of visiting his grandmother when he, a boy 
of ten, rode on horseback to her home to witness the 
opening ceremonies of the Erie Canal in 1825; the 
canal bank was within eight feet of the wall of 
the house. My great grandmother, Catherine Schuy- 
ler Herkimer, was then a woman of seventy-five 
years of age, she had lived at the Old Fort all her 
married life and continued to reside there until her 
death, which occurred about five years later. There 
are many stories extant of the old life at the Fort, 
and our grandmother's experience through those try- 
ing times, was sometimes very thrilling, to say the 
least. 

It was here they stopped on their way for rest and 
refreshment, while bearing the litter of the wounded 
Herkimer, en route to his own home at Danube, after 
the terrible battle of Oriskany. It was fitting that 
the wounded general should make his last stop 



lii-fore reaching home at iiis boyhood" home, the 

• 

home built by his father. As I sit here now this 
stormy November day I am almost in sight, were it 
not for the hills, of the Old Herkimer Mansion, and 
the church still standing after 150 years. In a deep 
cavernous fire-place near me hangs the veritable old 
copper tea-kettle, once belonging to my great grand- 
mother from which she made the tea for General 
Washington and his aids on their trip through the 
valley in the summer of 1783. At my elbow is the 
old mahogany table brought from Germany with 
the Palatines, and at this table, covered with snowy 
linen of their hostess' own weaving, were seated 
Washington and his officers to partake of the refresh- 
ments served them. The old spinning wheel on 
which the linen was spun still stands in the attic, but 
the table with its old-time linen cloth has a place of 
honor in the dining room. What a pity there were 
no photographs in those days to picture the scenes 
and faces of long ago. There are some very good oil 
portraits of General Herkimer extant. I saw one at 
the Oneida Historical rooms at Utica which was 
very good and different from any other I have ever 
seen. 

As my aim has been to search the records of both 
branches of the family, this introduction must serve 
for both Herkimer and Schuyler lineage. I have 
intended to trace through only the direct line of our 
own branch of the two families, except to trace the 
direct line of General Philip Schuyler from the first 
American ancestor. I had always been told that my 
great grandmother, Catherine Schuyler, was a sister 
of General Philip Schuyler, but I find that this is not 
correct, their fathers before them were cousins, Gen- 







eral Schuyler being descended from Philip Peterson 
Schuyler and our own branch from David Peterson 
Schuyler, two brothers whose descendants many 
times intermarried. I have endeavored to give only 
authentic information, and to write nothing which 
could not be vouched for ; only a few of these his- 
toric places are now left standing, one is the old 
home of General Herkimer at Danube, another the 
old stone church at Herkimer, which one can see 
to-day seemingly in as good repair as ever, with the 
little winding stair leading to the pulpit where, for 
so many years, Dominie Rosecranz and Dominie 
Spinner labored for their people. The old church at 
Johnstown and the Court House at Fonda are still 
standing. These records, though very incomplete, 
I hope you may find satisfactory in a way, and that 
you may derive as much pleasure in the reading as I 
have taken in the compiling. 

Yours truly, 
Phcebe Strong Cowen, 

Mohawk, N. Y. 
Dece?nber, 1901. 



TO 



THE PALATINES. 



The settlement of this country by the Palatines is 
a matter of history. The Palatinate of the Rhine 
had been ravaged by war with brief intervals of 
peace for more than seventy-five years. Houses and 
villages had been destroyed, and the inhabitants so 
brutally treated that they at last left their native 
country in despair, with no hope for justice or toler- 
ation left them. 

The lower Palatinate of the Rhine is a division of 
Germany containing the cities of Manheim, Heidle- 
berg, Spires and other cities, mostly in the valley of 
the Rhine, covering many thousand square miles. 

Though belonging to Germany, this country had 
long been debatable ground. Lying as it did 
between France and Germany, and the two countries 
almost constantly at war, it was overrun by the 
armies of both nations. Religion, so called, was the 
firebrand between them, and again and again was the 
Palatinate devastated by the imperial armies. Lou- 
vois, the famous French general, under Tourenne, 
the war minister of Louis XIV., faithfully carried out 
his master's orders " to devastate the country." 
Cities and towns were burned ; men, women and 
children were driven forth from their pillaged homes 
in mid-winter, the ground covered with snow. Two 
cities and twenty-five towns, it is said, could be seen 
blazing at one time from the elector's windows. The 
fanatical Louvois commanded that a desert should 
be created between the kingdoms of France and 
Germany. When, finally, peace was declared in 1 697, 



II 

there was but little left for the afflicted people ; they 
were destitute and homeless. What wonder that they 
gladly accepted the friendly hand held out to them, 
in their distress, by England, offering them a wel- 
come and a home for themselves and their children, 
where they might enjoy freedom of thought and opin- 
ion, and once more become a community of people 
in their own homes, prosperous and happy. Though 
the outlook was dreary, hope was forever gone of 
any good to come to them in the land of their birth. 
England gave them a warm welcome, but, hospitable 
as were her people, they could not long tarry there. 
England had no place on her little island, kind- 
hearted as were her people, for the thousands who 
came among them seeking homes; but far across that 
great expanse of western waters there was a vast 
country comparatively unpopulated, or, at least, but 
thinly so, there was a rich soil, and a mild climate, 
seemingly a vineyard awaiting its harvesters. 

Thither came the first immigration of the Palatines ; 
but their lines had not yet fallen in pleasant places. 

Located at first among the barren pine plains west 
of the Hudson, they were treated little better than 
slaves ; their children bound out to service, not allowed 
to accumulate anything for themselves ; they were 
dissatisfied and unhappy. It was not for this they 
had left their native soil. There were fertile lands 
unoccupied lying still to the westward, and when 
later immigrations came, they determined to brave 
everything and journey onward toward the setting 
sun. 

It was cold winter when, finally, tiring of the 
barrenness of their first location, they made their 
toilsome journey on foot, some of them scantily 



12 

clothed, and so destitute of food, says one historian, 
that they were obliged to seek relief from the so- 
called savage red i n while in their search for home 
and better lands. The appeal, however, was not made 
in vain. The Indians treated their white brothers 
in distress with much kindness, showing them their 
hunting grounds, and living with them in amity for 
more than a score of years. The later immigration 
of Palatines did not stop in the Schoharie country. 
The Mohawk valley was then an unbroken wilderness, 
but the rich alluvial lands lying along the river 
reminded them of their old homes upon the borders 
of the Rhine. About one hundred of them secured 
the patent to the Burnettsfield grant. A part of them 
did not reach the lands assigned to them till the 
spring of 1723. The third immigration of the Pala- 
tines occured somewhere early in the year of 1721. 
Among the immigrants came the Herkimer or 
Ergheimer family, as the name was then spelled. 
Of this family, previous to their arrival in America, 
I have been unable to obtain any account. They 
were a sturdy and industrious people, these Pala- 
tines, not willing to settle down on the shores of the 
Hudson as bondsmen, but wanting their own lands 
and homes and churches and schools and the free 
exercise of their Protestant religion. 

Among these people, John Jost Herkimer seems 
to have been a leader; a young man of perhaps 
twenty-five or thirty, with his young wife, Catherine, 
his father, Jurgh (George), and his mother, Madaline, 
middle-aged people, we suppose, and some ninety 
others, brave, hopeful men and women, ready to 
venture into these unknown western wilds among 
the wild beasts and wilder savages for the sake of 
peaceful homes. 



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As to-day we are borne so swiftly on by steam and 
electric cars through this now thickly populated 
valley, how little can we realize the terrors which 
must daily and nightly have beset those brave fore- 
mothers of ours in that long distant past of 175 
years ago. John Jost Herkimer, as I have said, was 
a leader among his people. Soon after reaching these 
shores, he, with others, petitioned Governor Burnett 
for leave to purchase land of the Indians. At a 
meeting of the governor and his council, September 
9, 1 72 1, this leave was granted them. July 9, 1723, 
the purchase was concluded, and the deed signed by 
the Indians, the land thus purchased lying on 
both sides of the Mohawk river, beginning below 
the Little Falls, and extending to what is now 
Frankfort. The colonial patent was dated April 30, 
1725, and was granted to ninety-four persons, con- 
sisting of twenty-two families, among them Jurgh 
Herkimer, John Jost Herkimer, Madaline and 
Catherine Herkimer; giving to each patentee one 
hundred acres of land. Ninety-four hundred acres 
were covered with the patent. John Jost Herkimer 
drew the lot of one hundred acres, known as lot 
thirty-six, one-half mile east of the stone church. 
There he built a home and lived for many years. 
His children, five sons and eight daughters, were all 
born there. This home, which he afterward gave to 
his son George, was still standing in 1850, but has 
now disappeared. The remaining lots belonging to 
the Herkimer family were lots forty-four, twenty-four 
and five. 

Before the French and Indian War, while his chil- 
dren were yet young, John Jost Herkimer built a 
stone mansion about fifty rods west of the church. 



14 

This home was enclosed within the walls of the fort 
previous to the year 1756. A description of the 
stone house and church will be given later. John 
Jost Herkimer was a man of sagacity and ability. He 
accumulated wealth in lands and chattels and slaves, 
and was prominent in the affairs of men. The 
Herkimers early exhibited evidence of thrift far 
ahead of others of the Palatine settlers in the erec- 
tion of costly edifices and the possession of many 
broad acres purchased subsequent to the Burnetts- 
field tract. If John Jost Herkimer was married pre- 
vious to 1725, as we suppose he was, from the fact 
that the four lots drawn by the Herkimers as shown 
by the patent were afterward known to be in pos- 
session of other members of the family, and upon one 
of these lots the stone mansion afterward included 
in the fort was built. He evidently had no children 
born at that date to whom land could be alloted, as 
none of his children are named among the patentees. 
The two women whose names appear are not again 
mentioned until the death of John Jost Herkimer in 
1775, when in his will he refers to his beloved wife 
Catherine. 

A deed was executed July 1, 1745, by Gertrude 
Petrie and her family, to forty-six of the Burnetts- 
field lot owners for the laying out of a village by the 
German inhabitants. The new lots were not dis- 
tributed until 1793, when both Jurgh (George) 
Herkimer and his son Johan Jost were dead. Also 
Nicholas, the General, and his brothers Henry, 
Joseph and George were then dead. 

Phineas Gatz was the commissioner to make the 
division, which was a singular proceeding. The 62! 
acres were divided into forty-six lots, in each of the 




ggggg 



GEN. NICHOLAS HERKIMER. 



15 

two divisions of the town, the present Main street of 
the village being the dividing line. It had been 
thought that the high ridge which had fallen to Mrs. 
Petrie in the first division of the lots was eminently 
suitable for their village home. A map was made 
showing the position and number of the lots, the 
forty-six names were written on slips of paper and 
the slips put in a hat, and as the names were 
drawn out they were written down on the successive 
lots from one up to forty-six. Each person, whether 
dead or alive, whose name was read was assigned 
two lots of the same number, one in each division. 
Johan Jost Herkimer was assigned lots forty-five. 
He had been many years dead. So, too, had John 
Jost Petrie and nearly all the others whose names 
were used in the proceeding. 

Under this partition the titles of lots in that part 
of the village have been held, and deeds made by 
numbers, according to that drawing. 

What is now the village of Herkimer was then 
known as Fort Dayton. Where the Court House 
and Reformed Church now stand was within the 
lines of the stockade. The County Clerk's office is 
on the site of the ditch that was outside the breast- 
works. The Masonic Lodge, in 1794, had the names 
of John and Joseph Herkimer among its members. 

The lots drawn by the Herkimers were on the 
south side of the river, near the old stone church, and 
the island opposite called Herkimer's Island. Nicho- 
las, afterwards General Herkimer, being the eldest 
son, born about 1728, and Elizabeth Barbara, born 
1726, the eldest daughter and child. She was mar- 
ried in 1743, to Peter David Schuyler of Albany. 
Their marriage is recorded in the Dutch Reformed 
Church at Albany. 



i6 

A trading post had been established at Oswego 
to secure the friendship of the Six Nations and to 
divert the trade from Montreal to Albany. The 
food supply of the garrison had to be carried in bat- 
teaux up the Mohawk river to Rome, thence to 
Wood Creek and through the Oneida Lake and 
Osvveeo River to Lake Ontario. Among the earli- 
est contractors with the colonial government for for- 
warding supplies was John Jost Herkimer. He 
must have began soon after the fort was built. In 
1728, in act of colonial assembly, permission was 
given for an appropriation to John Jost Herkimer 
for supplies, etc., and again in 1737, an act that John 
Jost Herkimer, Henry Van Rennsalaer and John 
Harmon Wendell had the contract for three years 
to furnish victualing for the troops, and also the fur- 
nishing a sufficient number of batteaux to transport 
the twenty-five soldiers and the doctor, with their 
baggage and two men to assist, in going to and com- 
ing from Oswego ; and also to carry the baggage of 
the soldiers and doctors in wagons, each way between 
Albany and Schenectady. For these services they 
were to receive annually the sum of four hundred 
and fifty pounds. This contract was renewed, with 
the addition of Gerald Lansing, for the term of two 
years, to 1743. In 1744 the same contract was 
made with John Jost Herkimer and Gerald Lansing, 
they also to furnish supplies to the garrison for the 
payment of which the colonial government in April, 
1748, appropriated the sum of seven hundred and 
fifty-three pounds. It is probable that John Jost 
Herkimer and his associates had also a profitable 
business in transporting the goods of the traders to 
and from Albany. 




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Previous to 1770 there were no public highways 
west of the German-Flatts. In 1772 an act was 
passed for the better laying out and clearing, and 
keeping in repair, of the public highway in the 
counties of Albany and Tryon. The counties were 
divided into districts and commissioners appointed 
for each district. John Jost Herkimer was appointed ( 
one of the commissioners for Kingsfield district, on ' 
the south side of the river, from Little Falls to the 
western limits of the town. His son, Nicholas, one 
of the commissioners for the Canajoharie district. 
John Jost Herkimer continued to hold this office 
until April, 1775. 

Next to that of Sir William Johnson, the Herki- 
mer family was the most important in the valley. 
In 1752 John Jost with his son, Henry, bought 
2,324 acres of land on the south bank of the river, 
extending from Lindsay's patent to the easternmost 
Burnetts-field lots. In 1755 there were granted 
patents to John Joseph Herkimer and Nicholas 
Herkimer and fifteen others, a tract containing thirty- 
four thousand acres of land, comprising most of the 
German-Flatts and including nearly the whole of the 
present town of Columbia. 

The Stone Mansion, known as the fort, was built 
in 1740, and stood on the ground now occupied by 
the south bank of the Erie canal, in the village of 
Fort Herkimer, and about fifty rods west of the 
stone church, which was also surrounded by earth- 
works similar to the fort. The church is still standing 
in good condition to-day. The first church built on 
the site was built of logs in 1725. As soon after the 
arrival of the colonists as they had erected shelters 
to cover their own heads from the storm, they 



i8 

looked about for a place of worship and began to 
hew the logs for their little church. On September 
30, Nicholas Woolover, one of the patentees, gave a 
deed for the lot, which was lot thirty. The church 
was forty-eight by fifty-eight feet. In 1 75 1, they 
began the work of erecting the present stone church. 
The work was interrupted by the French and Indian 
War, at the close of which it was completed. The 
first minister was a brother of the Rev. Abraham 
Rosecranz, his name is not now known. He served the 
people for many years as teacher and preacher. No 
church records can be found until the pastorate of 
the Rev. Abraham Rosecranz, who succeeded him. 
When he came to the valley, I could not learn, but 
the marriage records in the Capitol library, at Albany, 
give the date of his marriage to Mary Herkimer as 
occurring in April, 1758. He became pastor of the 
Fort Herkimer church some time previous to 
1 764, as the church records in his hand were kept 
from 1764 to 1794. In 1802 the Rev. John P. Spin- 
ner was called to the pastorate of the church and 
served them faithfully for forty-eight years. He 
was father of the late Hon. Francis Spinner, who 
served for so long a time in the United States 
treasury department. At the Spinner home, at 
Mohawk, N. Y., I had the privilege, several years 
ago, of looking through and examining the books and 
manuscripts in the extensive historical collection of 
Hon. Francis Spinner. These books were then in 
charge of his brother, Mr. Jacob Spinner, who, at 
that time, occupied the house. 

The Rev. Abraham Rosecranz died in 1796, at his 
home at Fall Hill, opposite the Little Falls. He 
was greatly beloved by his people and successful in 




DOMINIE SPINNER. 



19 

his ministry. At his death, which occurred in the 
winter, 120 well-filled sleighs followed his remains to 
his resting place, underneath the pulpit of the church 
where he had labored for so many years. The pulpit, 
at that time, was on the south side, opposite the 
original entrance. The financial needs of the church, 
at that date, were provided for by the rental of lands 
deeded in trust for that purpose. The church is 
still standing in good preservation and, unless ruth- 
lessly destroyed, bids fair to stand for one hundred 
years to come. This was the first church in the 
valley built for European worship. In 18 12 there 
was a second story added to the church, with a gal- 
lery ; and, sometime later, there has been a modern 
reading desk or pulpit added, though the old winding 
stair still leads to the old pulpit, and the sounding 
board is still overhead. 

In the early history of the church there were no 
statistical reports required ; but, in 181 2, it was ordered 
that an annual report be made from each church of 
the number of communicants and families. The 
building begun in 1746, and delayed by the Indian 
troubles, was finally completed in 1757. Its dimen- 
sions were forty-eight by fifty-eight feet and seven- 
teen feet high, of stone, with heavy angular abutments 
at the corners, the door near the center of the 
north side, with the addition of eight feet to the 
height in 18 1 2. At this time the north door was 
closed and a new one made at the west end. It is 
a noble old building, antique and impressive. It 
stands a monument of the past ; its walls are firm and 
solid still, and, for many and many a year, it will 
stand as a landmark of the days when blood ran 
freely and many lost their lives by the Indian toma- 



20 

hawk and the French bayonet. Many of the remains 
of these defenders of their people found repose 
around these walls ; and, though unmarked, they are 
consecrated in the hearts of their descendants. The 
building was enclosed within the stockaded walls of 
the fort, as seen in the plan and profile of retrenched 
work around Herkimer house, at German Flatts, 
1756. It was here the people fled for protection and 
refuge when the land was laid waste by the French 
and Indians in 1758. Again, in 1772, it became a 
place of refuge from Indians and Tories. On the 
28th of June, 1775, a council was held here, in the 
fort, with the Indians, when the Oneidas and 
Tuscaroras ceded to the State that part of the terri- 
tory lying between the Unadilla and Chenango rivers. 

In 1775 Col. Willet's forces were concentrated at 
the fort. * 

In 1788 the States of Massachusetts and New 
York both claimed the lands lying beyond Fort Stan- 
wix (now Rome), then inhabited by the Six Nations, 
and containing three million acres of land. The dis- 
pute, however, was amicably settled, and in Septem- 
ber of that year Governor Clinton held a treaty with 
the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix. The whole plains 
were covered with Indians in their fantastic dress. 
The French ambassador and his wife were present, 
the lady coming on from New York to witness the 
event out of curiosity to see this great assemblage 
of savages. 

Among the revolutionary records in Albany, N. 
Y., at the State Capitol, I find in the list of sol- 
diers, nine of the name of Herkimer, besides the 
Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer. There were 
Colonel John Joseph Herkimer, who afterwards 



21 

/ 

went to Canada; Captain Henry Herkimer, of the 
Fourth regiment ; Captain George Herkimer, after- 
ward Colonel ; Nicholas, of the Fourth regiment ; 
George, of the Fourth; Joseph, of the Fourth; George 
Herkimer, of the Second ; Nicholas, of the Second, 
and Abraham, of the Second. At the first organiza- 
tion after the war George's name appears as Lieu- 
tenant of the Fourth company. 

The Herkimer Mansion, built in 1740, was of 
stone, forty feet wide and seventy feet long, the walls 
two feet thick ; it was two stories high, with a base- 
ment and attic, the roof very steep and covered with 
shingles three feet long; there were six windows, six 
port holes and a door on the north side, besides two 
front windows in the basement ; four windows, one 
door and six port holes on the south side, and one 
window and four port holes on the east side ; also a 
door in the basement, or ground floor, wide enough 
to drive a loaded team through. The basement 
under the east end of the building was a store room, 
under the west half of the house was a cellar, each 
about thirty-five feet square ; the only opening in 
the west end of cellar was a window ; the main 
entrances to the building were two doors, one on the 
north, the other on the south side. The hallway, 
twelve feet wide, running through the middle of the 
building, with a grand staircase of white oak, leading 
to the second story. Near the north entrance, which 
was at the front of the house, were two doors, one 
opening into the east room, the other into the west 
room, the hall dividing the house into two rooms on 
the main floor, and the east room being again subdi- 
vided into a kitchen or living room, a bed-room, and 
a pantry, thus leaving the main room about forty by 



22 

twenty-nine feet. The staircase, broad and easy of 
ascent, wide enough for four people to walk abreast 
in descending, led to the second story, which was also 
divided into three rooms and a bed-room over the 
hall at the head of the stairs. The window and door 
frames, casings, doors and floors were all made of 
white oak ; there were broad old fireplaces in both 
upper and lower rooms, with pothook and trammel, 
backlog and firestick of tradition blazing on the 
old andirons or (firedogs), which, on a cold day, gave 
the grand old rooms an air of comfort and cheerful- 
ness seldom found in the present day. The descrip- 
tion of this old, historic home was obtained from 
Mrs. Margaret Cristman, mother of Mrs. Dr. Fox, 
of Mohawk, N. Y. She was born in the old fort 
December i, 1798, and spent all her girlhood there 
until her marriage in 1 7 1 9, to John I. Cristman; she 
was the only daughter of Mary Herkimer Tygert, 
her mother dying during her infancy. She was 
brought up by her grandmother, Catherine Schuyler 
Herkimer, at her home at the old fort. A Mr. and 
Mrs. Palmer lived in the east end of the house for 
seven years previous to its final destruction. Mrs. 
Palmer's father, Mr. Chowder, taught the school at 
Fort Herkimer village and was chorister in the old 
church when the second story was added to the old 
walls. The two old ladies, says Dr. Fox, to whom I 
am indebted for the preceding description, agree in 
every particular as to the internal arrangement of 
the house, and to the correctness of the description, 
which also tallies with that given by Henry and John 
Strong, sons of Catherine Herkimer, who were also 
born at the old fort and spent a portion of their 
boyhood there. John Andrew Fox, another grand- 



23 

son, remembers the old house well. These three 
were great-grandsons of Henry Herkimer, the 
second son of John Jost Herkimer. The large base- 
ment of the house was, no doubt, built to be used as 
a storehouse for the goods to be transported to the 
forts at Oswego, in the carrying trade between this 
fort on Lake Ontario and the source of supplies at 
Albany, while John Jost was in the carrying business 
for the government, furnishing the supplies for the 
fort. 

In 1756 the Herkimer house, with the stone 
church and several smaller buildings, had been forti- 
fied by Sir William Johnson and enclosed with earth- 
works. The French "Itinerary," written in 1757, 
gives a full description of " Fort Kourai," as the 
Indians called it, and the Herkimer house. The 
stockades have been so many times described I will 
not repeat it here. There were three other stone 
buildings to which the inhabitants fled upon the 
approach of the Indians; the church which stood 
about fifty rods east of the Herkimer house, and was 
enclosed in the stockade ; a stone building which is 
now the Steel place, and one on the Snell place still 
further east. The people would gather for safety, 
and flee from one to the other of these until they 
reached the fort where they felt themselves secure. 
To this place of refuge the people fled again and 
again. 

In 1758, during the French and Indian War, the 
fort was commanded by Colonel Charles Clinton, 
father of General James and Governor George Clin- 
ton. Captain Nicholas Herkimer was at the fort 
and the Herkimer family were occupying their home 
there. I have said that the Fort Herkimer church 



24 

was the first church built for the worship of Euro- 
peans and that of their descendants. 

The Indian mission church, known as the Indian 
Castle, may have been built earlier, though Sir William 
Johnson had not been appointed superintendent of 
Indian affairs until 1757, when he succeeded Colonel 
Peter Schuyler. He had, however, acted as Indian 
agent under colonial appointment from August, 1 749. 

The protection by forts could not have been 
attempted had not the chiefs of the Susquehannas 
and Delawares desired them to be built for their 
security as well as for the settlers. They urged the 
governor to make war against the Ohio Indians. All 
that year, after the defeat of Braddock, the French 
and Indians were murdering and destroying his 
majesty's subjects and the Indians friendly to them. 
Sir William Johnson, in a letter to the Lords of Trade, 
says : " I gathered together all the Indians I could 
get together, with the militia, and took post at the 
German Flatts." In November of the same year the 
Indian sachem, chief of the Oneidas, met his white 
brothers in council and made a speech at Fort Her- 
kimer, Rudolph Schumaker and John Jost Herkimer 
and others who understood the Indian language 
being present to interpret. On the 30th of April, 
1758, Fort Herkimer, commanded by Captain 
Nicholas Herkimer, was attacked by a large body of 
Indians. The German minister and a majority of 
the inhabitants saved themselves by fleeing to the 
fort. The Palatine settlement was destroyed, many 
were slain and nearly 100 carried into captivity. 

The causes leading up to this terrible and bloody 
war were many. Jealousy and suspicion had been 
aroused in the Indian. From trusting in and believ- 



25 

ing them to be their friends, they had come to look 
upon the white man as their enemy, covetous of their 
lands, and smiling only when there was something to 
gain. Back in 1701, the five nations who were at 
the head of the confederacy of Indian nations had 
defined the limits with great precision as to the 
boundaries of their hunting grounds, which were the 
great lakes of Ontario and Erie and all the lands 
surrounding them for a distance of sixty miles. This 
was to be the sole and absolute property of the 
nation, to be secured to them forever, and as a proof 
of perpetual alliance ; and to support our rights 
against any claims of the French, they were willing 
to yield to Great Britain the sovereignty over the 
domain, to be secured and protected by forts, erected 
whenever and wherever it should be thought proper. 
With this treaty was given a deed to the surrender 
of the lands. The advantage to us was greater than 
we could have possibly expected. Had the colonial 
government adhered to these terms, all would have 
been well ; but year after year passed by, the white 
settlers constantly encroaching upon their Indian 
neighbors. A deputation of the Indians waited upon 
Governor Clinton with their grievances. A com- 
mittee had been appointed to meet with the commis- 
sioners to consult as to what methods were to be 
used to preserve the friendship of the Six Nations, 
and to prevent the French and their allies from 
encroaching on Indian lands. Such an interview 
seemed practically necessary in order to renew and 
confirm the league of amity between us, but affairs 
did not run smoothly. The Indian deputation came, 
but the answers to their complaints were not satis- 
factory. They expressed their resentment by an 



26 

abrupt and hasty departure. This was on the 14th 
of June, 1754- The friendship and alliance of the 
Six Nations was a very important matter to the 
British colonies. Great surprise was felt that the 
Indians should be allowed to depart without measures 
being taken to redress their grievances ; fatal conse- 
quences were likely to follow. A speedy interview 
was necessary to be held, with all due regard to the 
convenience of the red men, and if Albany was objec- 
tionable some other place to their satisfaction should 
be chosen. Some person of decision and character 
should be sent among them to endeavor to remove 
any prejudice which the Six Nations may have 
imbibed at this critical juncture and to examine into 
their complaints in order to take proper and legal 
measures for their redress. On the 27th the Mohawk 
Indians met the governor and counsel to "unfold 
their minds and redress their grievances." One was 
that at the former meeting the then governor had 
turned his back on them and departed, the other was 
concerning their land. They complained that the 
writings covered all their land ; that they had nothing 
left that was their own ; they were very poor. " The 
governor had turned his back upon the five nations, 
and the French were doing all in their power to draw 
our people to them." "In former times we were a 
powerful people. Col. Schuyler came often among 
us, and by these means kept us together. Some of 
our people have large open ears, and talk a little 
broken English and Dutch, and they hear sometimes 
what is said by the Christian settlers near them." 

But, instead of the redress which might have been 
expected, the papers were all sent to Great Britain 
to belaid before His Majesty, the King. To the 



27 

Indians, ignorant of business forms, this meant much, 
but the deputy-general and members of assembly 
knew that it was not only irregular, but impractical. 
Lands were surveyed and sold in larger quantities than 
appeared in the deeds, and by people who had no 
right whatever to sell them. These abuses were 
not confined to one province or people ; they were 
felt in every province and extended to every tribe of 
Indians with whom we had dealings, and though all 
nations did not take up the hatchet against us, they 
were, more or less, our friends according as the 
fortunes of war favored us, or were against us. 

It should be small wonder that the Indians were 
jealous in a matter that concerned their very 
existence. While we confined our settlements to 
the seacoast and the lower St. Lawrence we were 
not deemed invaders, but when we began to push 
them to the north and to the west, as our own settle- 
ments increased in size and numbers, large tracts of 
land were required, then the Indian began to grow 
cautious and wary in the matter. In October, 1767, 
in a letter from Sir William Johnson to General 
Gage, he says: " The Indians have proposed fre- 
quently that we should not exceed certain limits in 
our purchases, etc., and the government was so sen- 
sible of this that an establishment of a certain 
boundary line between each of the colonies and the 
Indian nations throughout the whole continent was 
made. The people on the frontier may not always 
be the aggressors, but they certainly are so very 
often. This seems to confirm the jealousy and resent- 
ment of the Indians, and our enemies, who are among 
them, greatly increase both, for the Indians both 
receive and give credit to their report, and they say 



28 

they have in vain waited the fulfilling of our prom- 
ises. They have received a very large belt from an 
officer on the Mississippi, with a message that they 
be not longer trilled with by the English, for he, 
having sat quietly down for some time and being 
about to rise, luckily discovered his axe by his side 
and found that it was as sharp as ever. Therefore, 
he exhorted them to take up their axes likewise. 
I see nothing but a general tendency to a 
rupture which I am at a loss to prevent. 
" To His Excellency, General Gage." 
Again on December 24th, of the same year " many 
promises were found necessary to be made by 
captains and commanders-in-chief, which they had 
no prospect whatever of performing. This, with the 
wrongs and intrusions they meet, are a plain intima- 
tion to them of our dislike and our intention to 
destroy their liberty. Excited by revenge, they 
endeavor to destroy and retard the growth of the 
settlements which they feel will finally swallow them 
up." How just that fear ! Now, that 150 years have 
passed, where are they, the Indians? Their once 
forest home knows them no more, driven westward 
and still westward, until the name of Indian is almost 
a myth in this fair land which was once their own 
possession. 

By the reduction of Canada the English became sole 
possessors here. Our people constantly encroached 
upon the savages, as we called them, wronged and 
insulted them. Congress paid no heed to their bitter 
plaints, and though we paid dearly for it all during 
the Indian war, the punishment falling alike upon the 
just and the unjust, no sooner was the war termi- 
nated, and the peace of 1 764 declared, than it all began 



29 

again. The assurance of the colonial government 
from time to time, that their affairs were under con- 
sideration, and that the abuses should be remedied, 
did not prevent them from again taking up arms. 
A good deal depended upon whether the colonies 
acted quickly in the matter of the Canadian trade. 
The constant removal and short terms of the colonial 
governors was bad ; they would no sooner become 
acquainted with affairs, and begin to understand the 
situation, before a new governor would be appointed, 
a stranger to Indian affairs, who knew nothing of 
the matter, and again the constant jealousies among 
those in high places kept them bickering among 
themselves, with no eye for Indian needs. 

It is now nearly a quarter of a century since, in 
August, 1877, tne people of central New York and 
the Mohawk valley had gathered together to cele- 
brate the one-hundredth anniversary of the battle of 
Oriskany, considering it eminently proper in that 
era of centenary celebrations that one of the most 
desperate and sanguinary, and as after events proved, 
one of the most important battles of the American 
Revolution, should be properly commemorated. The 
Oneida Historical Society of Utica took the matter 
in hand, and on the 19th of June, at a meeting of the 
common council, the arrangements were made, and 
committees appointed, and invitations issued which 
met with a hearty response. The historic grounds 
were thrown open to the public and all due prepara- 
tions made. Nature smiled on the people, and gave 
them a perfect day in which to express their gratitude 
and appreciation of the perils of their forefathers. 

The day was ushered in by guns fired at sunrise 
from the one-time battlefield ; the hills and valleys 



3° 

were black with people, old and young and middle- 
aged, on foot, on horseback, and in wagons; by rail 
and steamer — all roads led to Oriskany on that day. 
It was estimated that between sixty and seventy-five 
thousand people filled the hills and valleys. As the 
column passed the ravine marked by a Mag the troops 
dipped their colors in salute. This was received by 
the multitude with cheers ; this was the place where, 
one hundred years before, Herkimer's brave men had 
laid down their lives for their country's cause. The 
column was just one hour and one-half in passing a 
given point. Many men of note honored themselves 
by accepting the invitation, and giving their presence, 
and taking a part in these ceremonies. Herkimer, 
at the time of his death, was but forty-nine years 
old ; short, slender, of dark complexion, with black 
hair and dark eyes. After the battle General Herki- 
mer was carried on a litter of boughs from the battle- 
field to Fort Herkimer, where they halted ; and from 
there, by boat most of the way, to his own home at 
Little Falls. The distance from the battlefield to 
his home, over the route they traveled, was thirty- 
five miles. 

Schuyler was bitterly opposed by his officers in 
sending relief to Fort Stanvvix, on the plea that it 
would weaken the defenses at Albany. However 
he acted promptly in the matter, saying " I will take 
the responsibility myself ; where is the brigadier who 
will command the relief?" Benedict Arnold, then 
unstained by treason, promptly accepted the leader- 
ship of the band. St. Leger had fled in such haste, 
that his men had thrown away their packs in their 
flight; the flight says an old historian had become 
a disgraceful rout. The English historian, however, 



3i 

does not put it in quite that light, though the story 
of Oriskany has been more faithfully told by the 
British than by many American authors, who, at that 
date, did not appreciate its place in history. 

The battle of Oriskany was an intimation, couched 
in unmistakable language, of the vast mistake the 
British government had made in their reliance on the 
Tory element for the subjugation of the provinces. 
It was Oriskany that taught the English that the 
Indians as allies were sometimes dangerous ; they 
could not always be depended upon. A reverse threw 
them into a panic, and if they could not plunder the 
garrison of the valley, as they had been promised, 
they turned upon their friends and plundered them. 
A scalp was a scalp in Indian ethics, whether it came 
came from the head of friend or foe, and if they got 
their price, who was to be the wiser as to whence it 
came ? Herkimer, the brave and gallant soldier, gave 
his life for the cause at Oriskany. The Tryon 
county militia held the field and carried off their 
wounded at their leisure ; the result of the battle was 
the raising of the siege at Fort Stanwix. Back to 
back, shoulder to shoulder, they had faced the foe. 
Where shelter could be had they stood together 
two and two, so that one might fire while the other 
loaded, and when the fight grew closer the knife 
ended the contest. The ground tells the story of 
this terrible struggle ; the British forces had chosen 
well their ground. The firing began from the hills, 
which curved like a scimiter from the west to the 
east on the north of the river. Herkimer, with 
the advance, had crossed the ravine. As he reached 
the center of the curve his horse was shot beneath 
him. The flag on the hill now marks the spot where 



32 

he fell. A furious storm of wind and rain came up, 
lulling for a time the din of battle. After five hours 
of desperate encounter the British fell back. The 
wounded Herkimer and his gallant men held the 
ground. In vain they begged the general for permis- 
sion to remove him from the place of danger, and 
shelter him from the storm, but the sturdy soldier 
only replied, " Iwill face the enemy." So they brought 
his saddle, and with his back against the tree, calmly 
smoking his pipe, he sat giving his orders and direct- 
ing the battle, in the meantime his life blood flow- 
ing from the wounded leg, which could receive no 
attention until the battle was over. How the lack 
of timely attention and the unskillful amputation 
cost the brave general his life has passed into his- 
tory. Many were the lives laid down on that bloody 
field, the Thermopylae of America it may well be 
called. After one hundred years have passed, we 
begin to know and appreciate what the defeat of St. 
Leger meant to the struggling Americans. The 
success of St. Leger at Oriskany would have been 
fatal to the cause. Albany would have fallen, and 
Gates would then have found the valley overrun 
with Tories. 

The men who stood upon the hillsides on that 6th 
of August, or those who were struggling through the 
ravine, were no more aware of the extent of the 
perils they were encountering than they were of the 
magnitude of the outcome of the happenings of that 
memorable day and those immediately following. 
They did not then appreciate, though it was true that 
the gateway to the Mohawk which they were defend- 
ing with their lives, was, as I said before, a modern 
Thermopylae. If the forces of Sir Henry Clinton 






% 




' *%* ^ i -ti . 




HERKIMER DIRECTING BATTLE. 



33 

and St. Leger had been united there would have 
been for us no triumph at Saratoga, no surrender of 
Burgoyne. In the not far away future the part taken 
by the patriots of the Mohawk valley in shaping these 
events of the future will be better understood than 
now, and some historian of the future will take up 
the work and proclaim the story of the prowess of 
the hills and valleys of the Mohawk, that the sons 
and daughters, descendants of these historic homes, 
may read with pride and pleasure of the heroes of 
these early days. They were dark and dreadful 
days — families divided among themselves, none 
knowing whom to trust. England was our mother 
country in more senses than one ; there were many 
ties to bind us. Persecution had driven us from 
Holland and from Germany. England had held out 
to us a helping hand which we, in our extremity, had 
gladly accepted. The English had been our brothers ; 
the citizens of London had appealed to the king to 
" stop the unnatural and unfortunate war;" Burke 
had pleaded for conciliation ; Chatham had rejoiced 
" that America resisted," but still hoped that 
Britain would prevent a separation. Wise men 
declared that the war would be desperate, but it was 
in the colonies that the magnitude of the contest was 
felt. The darkness rested especially on New York, 
surrounded as she was on all sides by the enemy ; 
not only on all sides, but in their very midst. But 
the faithful ones faltered not ; if for a moment they 
were dismayed, the next they gathered strength and 
took courage from every defeat. It was indeed a 
trial of men's souls, and strength, and fortitude, and 
endurance. The wheat and the chaff were soon sep- 
arated, the refuse blown to one side to swell the 



34 

ranks of the enemy ; the true and the tried coming 
forth like wood and marble from the hand of the 
polisher, with all the beautiful grain brought to the 
surface. The British commanders at New York and 
Montreal aimed to grind the patriots of the Mohawk 
valley between the upper and nether millstones of 
their armies, but they only succeeded in uniting true 
hearts in one common cause ; bringing out in their 
true colors, by this grinding process, the hardness 
and beauty of the metal of these granite-hearted 
people. Strong in their adherence to the right, 
there had been little thus far in their lives to bring 
out the softness of their natures. Burgoyne met 
with no set back until Oriskany, the most bloody 
battle of the revolution, says the annalist; when, on 
the 6th of August, 1777, General Nicholas Herkimer, 
at the head of 800 militia — valley farmers, called 
"The Tryon County Militiamen" — marching to the 
relief of beleaguered Fort Schuyler, was ambuscaded 
by Brant, Sir John Johnson, and St. Leger. One-half 
of Herkimer's force was destroyed, the brave general 
receiving a mortal wound, but refusing to leave the 
field. The fighting was terrific. The Indians had 
expected an easy victory. St. Leger had told them 
they need not fight, they could sit by and smoke 
their pipes and watch the redcoats whip the rebels. 
Instead, their best and finest chiefs had fallen ; their 
losses were appalling. Suspecting treachery, they 
began to sneak away. St. Leger refused to abandon 
the siege until told that Arnold, with a much larger 
force, was marching to the assistance of Gansevoort. 
Reluctantly he then gave the order to retreat. The 
retreat soon became a flight, and the Indians scalped 
captives and Englishmen alike. The American flag, 



35 

the Stars and Stripes, first fluttered in the breeze in 
the face of an enemy at Fort Schuyler. It was a 
rude emblem, the blue from an old coat, the white 
from a shirt, and the red from a petticoat of a soldier's 
wife. This was also the first time in the history of 
the country that the British ensign hung as a captive 
underneath the American colors. Burgoyne never 
recovered from the blow administered at Oriskany. 

Up to the spring of 1775 the attachment of the 
colonies to England was sincere and ardent. Of all 
the colonies New York, next to Virginia, was bound 
to England by the strongest ties. At the outbreak 
of the revolution Dutch was the common language 
of the province, and to Holland is due more than to 
any other nation the decision of New York in the 
great conflict. 

New York city extended a mile and a half in 
length, and half a mile in width, and was built up as 
far as the " Fields," which is the city hall park of to- 
day. There were elegant country nouses along the 
river, and large manor houses, with their libraries 
and state dining-rooms filled with massive, beautiful 
furniture and decorations. Massachusetts led the 
procession towards the separation from the mother 
country. The Puritan influence in New England 
was powerful. Tryon had been removed to North 
Carolina in 1771. The fourth Provincial Congress 
assembled at White Plains July 9, 1776. The first 
legislature of the State of New York assembled at 
Kingston September 9, 1777; on October 13, 1778, 
they convened at Poughkeepsie, as Kingston had 
then been burned. Tryon county, organized from 
Albany in 1772 and named in honor of Governor 
Tryon, was divided into five districts. In 1778 the 



36 

v 

county, then called Montgomery, was organized into 
townships ; the then German Flatts district became 
the town of Herkimer and the Kingsland district 
took the name of German Flatts, This was done by 
the legislature through a mistake, which was soon 
discovered, but was thought of too little importance 
to make any change. In 1772, while the court-house 
at Johnstown was being erected, Governor Tryon 
and his wife visited the Baronial Mansion at Johnson 
Hall. While there the baronet called together the 
Indian sachems in a council at Johnson Hall that 
His Excellency might hear some Indian grievances, 
and also to show the governor the confidence which 
the Indians reposed in himself as their agent. The 
Hon. Oliver De Lancy and Henry White, govern- 
ment officers, and others were present at this Indian 
treaty. On his journey up the Mohawk the governor 
reviewed three regiments, one at Johnstown, one at 
Canajoharie, the other at Fort Herkimer. Among 
the justices appointed for Tryon county, May 26, 
1772, are Peter Ten Broeck and Henry Frey ; assist- 
ant, John Frey, who later, as Major John Frey, 
became sheriff of Tryon county, after the flight of 
the Tory, White, to Canada. Rudolph Shoemaker 
and Frederick Bellinger were also assistant justices. 
Hendrick Frey was the son-in-law of old John Jost 
Herkimer, having married the sixth daughter, Eliza- 
beth. Rudolph Shoemaker and Peter Ten Broeck 
also married Herkimer girls, the first marrying Ger- 
trude, the second Anna Herkimer. Frederick Bel- 
linger and young Peter Ten Broeck were grandsons 
of the old Palatine. 

The court-house for Tryon county, built in 1772, 
is still standing, facing the depot of the New York 



37 

Central Railroad at Fonda, the only colonial court- 
house now remaining in the State. 

In a bill for expenses of Tryon county, June 15, 
1774, there is charged: Cash paid Col. Hendrick 
Frey for seventy-five days' attendance at court as 
member of assembly, forty-five pounds. Cash paid 
Rudolph Shoemaker for four days' attendance, four 
pounds. 

In the summer of 1783 General Washington, with 
General Clinton and others of the staff, including, it 
is said, General Gansevoort and General Hamilton, 
as he was accompanied by a retinue of officers con- 
sisting of his aides and others, made a tour of the 
Mohawk valley to visit the frontier posts and those 
parts which had been the theater of important trans- 
actions during the war. He had, previous to this, 
established a magazine of supplies at Fort Herkimer 
for the western garrisons, sufficient for 500 men for 
ten months. 

Colonel Willett was in command at Fort Herki- 
mer at the time. The visit of General Washington 
with his retinue was an event to long be remembered 
in the valley. He had won the adoring love of the 
people and stood like a god among them ; they were 
almost ready to fall down and worship at his feet. 
The people, the masses, no matter how much those 
high in authority might quibble among themselves 
and quarrel over matters both great and small, as we 
know they did, beginning, almost before the British 
armies had left our shores, to fling stones, as you 
might say, at one another, but as I said the people 
looked upon Washington as their deliverer ; he had 
led them through the dark waters of their tribulation 
out into the fair land of promise. They could not 



38 

show their love enough for him ; no homage seemed 
too great ; and this journey of his through the valley 
was a triumphal progress, remembered to be told to 
their children and their children's children. Where- 
ever he dined, or lunched, or slept, it was almost a 
sacred memory. " Washington had slept in this bed 
during his progress through the valley; Washington 
had dined here, or lunched there ; under this tree or 
that had been spread the table for him and his 
officers." One old lady boasted for many years that 
her mother had washed a pair of silk stockings for 
Washington as he stopped at the old stone fort for 
a day. My own great-grandmother had her old 
mahogany table, brought from the German father- 
land, spread beneath a tree, covered with the whitest 
of home-made linen on which to serve the dinner for 
Washington and his officers. This table now stands 
at my elbow, quaint in its antiquity. Preserved as 
a relic of the past, it is still spread with snowy linen, 
spun and woven by the same old grandmother who 
served the feast on that day, and the shining brass 
teakettle from which their tea was made stands 
near. These valuable old relics are now in the pos- 
session of Mrs. Eliza Fox, of Mohawk, N. Y., whose 
mother, Margaret Cristman, was granddaughter of 
Katharine Schuyler Herkimer, who served the dinner 
that day at her home at the old fort, to General 
Washington, General Clinton, General Gansevoort, 
General Hamilton and several other officers, including 
Colonel Willett, who was, at that time, in command 
at Fort Herkimer. General Washington and his 
suite made the famous journey from Schenectady to 
Fort Stanwix on horseback. Not long- after the 
ratification of peace Washington resigned his com- 




JNO. ANDREW FOX. 



39 

mand and retired to private life until called again 
by the people to take the reins of government in 
hand as their first president. 

The old stone mansion, the most important at 
Fort Herkimer, had been garrisoned at various 
periods since 1757, when the fort contained one 
hundred and fifty soldiers and two hundred settlers, 
the garrison remaining there until the close of the 
French war, part of the time under the command of 
Captain Nicholas Herkimer. In 1776 it had been 
again fitted up and garrisoned. 

After peace was declared it once more became the 
quiet home of the Herkimer family and was occupied 
by Joseph Herkimer, Jr., son of Henry Herkimer, 
and his family under a life lease from his grandfather, 
Johan Jost Herkimer. John Herkimer, the youngest 
son of the old Palatine, died in 1817. Joseph Herki- 
mer, Jr., was undoubtedly living at the time of the 
death of his uncle John, as in the settling up of the 
estate after his death, in the celebrated lawsuit as to 
who was heir under the will, Joseph Herkimer, Jr., 
was declared to be entitled to 1-12 of the estate 
as heir-at-law of his father, Henry Herkimer, and 
1-45 in right of his wife, Catharine Elizabeth Schuy- 
ler, daughter of Elizabeth Barbara Herkimer, the 
eldest daughter of the testator. How many years 
after 181 7 Joseph lived I do not know, but his wife, 
Katharine, lived to be very old, dying somewhere 
about 1830. Her grandson remembers her very well. 
The old lady was still living at the old stone house in 
1825, at the opening of the Erie canal. Andrew J. 
Fox, a grandson, now in his 89th year, remembers of 
going on horseback to visit his grandmother at the 
old stone house, then called the " Old Fort, " when 



40 

he, a lad of ten, went to see the grand opening of 
the Erie canal. Henry Strong, another grandson, 
went through on one of the first boats that went 
through the canal. He had a contract for building 
some of the locks and bridges of the canal and went 
through on the same boat with Governor Clinton. 
His mother, Katharine Herkimer, was the daughter 
of Joseph Herkimer, Jr., and was born at the old 
fort in October, 1780, where she lived with her three 
sisters until their marriage. The old home had 
become dilapidated and after the death of the old 
grandmother, in or about 1830, somewhere between 
1827 and 1830, it was rented to a family by the name 
of Palmer. The upper story was removed, and 
finally, in 1840, just 100 years after its erection, the 
entire buildingr was torn down to make room for the 
enlarged Erie canal, and now not a vestige of it 
remains, except, as I have been told, a cavity which is 
said to have been a part of the cellar on the bank of 
the canal. 

Mr. Morse, who had the contract for the long 
level and the building of the locks, promised for him- 
self and the State, when tearing down the old land- 
mark, that some suitable tablet should be erected 
upon the spot — some monument to mark the historic 
place This may, some time, in the future, be done ; 
but, if not soon accomplished, there will be no one 
left to point out the place except by tradition. As 
the ruins of the old stockade were used in the first 
building of the canal, so now, in the enlarging in 1840, 
the stone from the old house, built just 100 years 
before, were taken for the locks, etc. Who can tell 
what will be there in 1940? The ship canal of the 
future will require still more room than what is now 



41 

the old canal. When the steamships of the future 
go ploughing their way along the old Erie the old 
church, the first church built in the State west of 
Albany, will still be standing to mark the way. At 
the close of 1 780, when my grandmother was a wee 
baby, General Van Rensalaer arrived at Fort Her- 
kimer, which was still garrisoned, in pursuit of the 
" Greens and Rangers," which some unkind historian 
says " he was very careful not to overtake." There 
were rumors that some relationship existed between 
General Van Rensalaer and Sir John Johnson which 
induced the general to favor his escape. However, 
I believe he was afterwards court-martialed for his 
apathy in the matter, but was finally acquitted, as it 
was said those officers who might have testified 
against him did not wish or dare to accuse a man of 
so much wealth and prominence, or, as the moderners 
would say, " They knew on which side their bread 
was buttered." But as we look at these things from 
this distance of time it seems a good thing if one 
could or would let sympathy or love stay their hand 
from smiting down an old-time friend or neighbor. 
There are instances told even of Brant, the blood- 
thirsty, sparing an old neighbor and one-time friend, 
though I think Walter Butler let no qualms of con- 
science or lingerings of love hinder his bloody work 
of hate and devastation. I think no known English 
officer was capable of the cruelties he committed, 
though our friend Douwe Mavourensen, in the 
pathetic tale of "In the Valley," seemed to have a 
soft spot in his heart even for Walter Butler on 
account of their one-time boyish companionship. 

War, at its best, is a terrible thing, and there are 
not many, I think, in these modern days who could 



42 

find it in their hearts to blame Van Rensalaer for 
being a little slow when too great haste would cost 
the life of his friend, who, at all events, in his escape 
was placed beyond the power of doing greater harm 
to the provinces. 

The incidents of General Herkimer's career are 
too well known to need repetition here. The story 
of Oriskany, which has many times been told in 
detail, is familiar, no doubt, to every descendant of 
the heroes of this valley ; these brave men whose 
action on that eventful day so changed the tide of 
affairs as to make a thing of fact out of the events 
of what had before been mere theory. 

Among those of his own family with him on that 
eventful day were the general's brother, George ; his 
two brothers-in-law, Colonel Peter Bellinger and 
Captain Henry Bell; Colonel Cox, killed; the gen- 
eral's nephews, Major John Frey, Captain Jacob 
Seeber, Lieutenant William Seeber, and Colonel 
John Bellinger, taken captive and kept till the close 
of the war. Captain George Henry Bell had two 
sons in the battle. Joseph was killed by the Indians 
in battle, Nicholas killed afterwards about a mile 
from his father's home by the Indians. 

The armaments of the forts were small, consisting 
of cannon and signal guns to warn the inhabitants 
of impending danger. In 1778, about the last of 
August or first of September, Forts Dayton and 
Herkimer again became the asylum of the terror- 
stricken inhabitants, men, women, and children flee- 
ing thither for safety when Brant, with his 450 
Indians and Tories, destroyed nearly the whole 
valley. 

During all this time, as far as I can learn, the stone 



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43 

house within the fort continued to be the home of 
the Herkimer family, Henry Herkimer, the second 
son, dying there during the following year, 1779. 
How long after his death his wife Catharine lived I 
cannot tell, but she was certainly living at the time 
of his death, as he mentions her in his will. His 
son Joseph was living at the fort with his wife and 
baby daughter. Visiting the court-house in Albany, 
N. Y., in the fall of 1899, and again in 1901, I found 
there, and at the Court of Appeals, and in the 
Law Library at the Capitol several documents of 
interest, among them the old wills, carefully filed 
away, of General Nicholas Herkimer, of his father, 
John Jost Herkimer, and his brother Hendrick, or 
Henry Herkimer. It seems that these wills were 
not admitted for probate till 1783. General Herki- 
mer's will has already been mentioned in these papers, 
also that of his brother Henry. When, on Septem- 
ber 9, 1783, his sons Joseph and Nicholas came 
before the surrogate with the will, in which ; beside 
other legacies, he had given 2,000 acres to be divided 
between his sons and another 2,000 acres to be divided 
between his five daughters ; but in case his son 
Joseph became heir at law to the estate of his grand- 
father on the death of his uncle John, according to 
the will of the former, then he was not to share with 
his brothers in the division of his father's estate. At 
the time of the death of John Herkimer Joseph was 
the only one of the executors living, and after a long- 
drawn-out lawsuit between the heirs it was decided 
according to the following papers : 

Johnson Report. 

Jackson vs. Bellinger, 
Herkimer Estate. 



44 

John Jost Herkimer, testator, died August, 1775; 
Katherine, his wife, died soon after ; their son John 
died April 20, 1817, without issue; Nicholas, the 
eldest son, died August, 1777, without issue ; Henry, 
the second son, died August, 1779 leaving John 
Joseph, one of the lessors, his son and heir at law, 
born October 1, 1751. Joseph, the third son of the 
testator, had fled to Canada and was attainted ; 
George, the fourth son, had died in 1786. Elizabeth 
Barbara, the eldest daughter, in 1743 married Peter 
D. Schuyler and died in 1800 leaving Katherine, one 
of the lessors of the plaintiff, and four other chil- 
dren, one of whom died previous to 181 7 leaving 
lawful issue. Elizabeth, the sixth daughter, married 
to Henry Frey, survived her brother John. John 
Jost Herkimer, the testator, made his will in 1771, 
leaving bequests to all his children and his wife 
Katherine ; and after his death the farm property to 
his son John, and after his death without issue the 
property should go to the next heir by the name of 
Herkimer. John died leaving one sister, nephews and 
nieces. Henry's eldest son Joseph, married to Kath- 
erine Elizabeth Schuyler, eldest daughter of Eliza- 
beth Barbara Herkimer and Peter David Schuyler 
deceased, lived at the fort as lessors, under the will, 
with their children. Joseph, the third son, had died 
in Canada in 1787, leaving seven children; in the 
meantime the law had been abrogated making the 
eldest son the heir to estates and after much lawing 
over the matter it was finally decided that Joseph 
Herkimer, the lessor, was entitled to 1-12 of the 
Herkimer estate in his own right, and 1-45 part in 
right of his wife Katherine, who was the daughter 
of Elizabeth Barbara Herkimer, eldest daughter of 



45 

the testator, and Mrs. Frey was entitled to 2-12 parts. 
Thus ended the great case of Herkimer and Bellinger. 

Why Mrs. Frey should have been entitled to 2-12 
parts, I do not understand, as there were eleven of 
the sons and daughters of the testator who left 
children. 

The date of the death of Jurgh Herkimer and his 
wife Madeline is not known ; they were living in 
1725 as shown by the patent. John Jost dying in 
August, 1775, left a large family, the daughters 
of whom had married among the most prominent 
men of the times; Nicholas had become a man of 
note honored by the Colonial Government in its 
appointments, ascending up the ranks from private 
to lieutenant, captain, colonel and brigadier general. 
He survived his old father but two years, being not 
yet fifty years old when he met his death, while the 
old father had lived to be nearly eighty, passing 
through all the terrors of the French and Indian 
War ; he had enjoyed in his prosperous old age the 
peace and plenty he had merited. 

As early as 1730, there was a schoolhouse built 
near the site of the old stone church, and upon the 
same site there has been a public school kept from 
that time to the present. It was here, no doubt, that 
the general and his brothers and sisters attended 
school, the language taught being German, which, at 
that time, was the only language spoken in the valley. 
At the church near by they were instructed in the 
scriptures and taught the catechism. In 1751 when 
it was proposed to erect a new church in the place of 
the old one, Johan Jost, as sole petitioner, addressed 
the Colonial Government for a license to circulate the 
subscription paper for aid in building the church. 



46 

This petition was dated October 6, i 75 1 , in behalf of 
himself and one hundred families, high Germans, 
residents of Burnetts-field in the county of Albany. 
Upon a spot of ground already purchased for the 
worship of God according to the discipline of the 
Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. Interrupted 
by the war, when they were finally able to go on 
with the work, he had then become an old man, and 
in the paper put forth says : "I, Johan Jost Herki- 
mer, being now become old and unable to carry on 
the work, do appoint Jacob Folts in my place, etc." 

Previous to 1756 the mansion of the Herkimer 
family and the stone church with other buildings 
had been enclosed by a stockade and garrisoned by 
soldiers. For a description see vol. 1, Doc. History. 
A plan of the fort maybe seen in vol. 2, page 732, also 
in Benton's Herkimer County, page 250. A ferry 
crossed from the village to Fort Herkimer and the 
church now standing, the garrison at the fort con- 
sisting of 300 men. 

It was in these two homes where General Nicholas 
Herkimer grew up to manhood, his school education 
being in German, which was the only language used 
in the valley. Living upon his father's farm, he was 
a hardy, ambitious, wide-awake youth, familiar with 
woodcraft and Indian craft; their customs and their 
ways became familiar to him, thus becoming uncon- 
sciously fitted for the important part he was to fill in 
later days. As early as 1757 he was made a lieuten- 
ant of militia and was in command in Fort Herkimer. 
June 17, 1775, at a meeting of the Palatine com- 
mittee, Nicholas Herkimer, chairman, Joseph Her- 
kimer, Jr., took the oath of allegiance to support 
American Liberty ; Captain George Herkimer was 
also a member of the committee. 




FT. HERKIMER. 



47 

November, 1775, a guard furnished from the com- 
panies of Captain George Herkimer and John 
Eisenbald were instructed to stop every suspicious 
personage whether traveling by land or water. 
Captain Herkimer arrested four suspicious appearing 
persons returning from Canada. 

Colonel John Joseph Herkimer afterward joined 
Sir John Johnson's party and went to Canada with 
his family where he remained until his death in 1786. 
His property was attainted. This is, I believe, the 
only case in the Mohawk valley of attainder beside 
the family of the Johnsons, During the summer of 
1776 Fort Dayton and Fort Herkimer were put in a 
state of defense. v^At General Herkimer's second 
interview with Brant he was accompanied by his 
nephews, George and Abraham Herkimer, sons of 
his brother Henry. This interview took place June 
2 7> l 777- I d° not propose in these pages to give a 
full account of the battle of Oriskany, which has been 
so fully described by so many different writers that 
in this little sketch of the Herkimer family and the 
prominent place they filled and the causes leading up 
to and making of the Palatine history, I need not 
repeat the story of these great battles with which 
you are all no doubt familiar. Henry Herkimer, the 
brother of the General, served, according to the best 
authority I can find, in the French and Indian war. | 
He had lived at the old home with his father up to 
and subsequent to his marriage, as his eldest son 
Joseph was born there in 1751, but some time before 
the revolution he had removed to Schuyler's Lake on 
a farm given him by his father. The patent is dated 
1 752, but whether he removed there at that early date 
or not we do not know. On the breaking out of the 



48 

war he returned to Stone-Arabia to his brother-in- 
law's, then to the Herkimer mansion. This was prob- 
ably just previous to, or about the time of his father's 
death. Here he lived until his own death, which 
occurred in 1779, two years after the death of his 
brother, the General, and before his father's will had 
been piobated, as in that instrument he, with his son 
Joseph, Jr., and his brothers Nicholas and George, 
were named executors, but before the will was pro- 
bated, only George and his nephew Joseph were 
living. 

Henry Herkimer was, with his father, joint pro- 
prietor of the Falls Hill patent of 2,324 acres granted 
in 1752. The farm given him by his father at the 
foot of Schuyler lake was included in the Croghan 
patent. 

General Schuyler had deemed it a matter of impor- 
tance to prevent the junction of St. Leger with Bur- 
goyne, and had dispatched Arnold with a considerable 
body of troops to relieve Fort Schuyler. On his way 
Arnold apprehended an American of some wealth 
and influence, whom he believed, like many of his 
neighbors, had been acting the part of a traitor to 
the American cause, but promised to spare his life 
and fortune on condition of his going into the British 
camp before Fort Schuyler and alarming the Indians 
and others by magnifying the number of the force 
which was marching against them. This the person, 
Hon. Yost Schuyler by name, son of Peter D. Schuy- 
ler, undertook to do, leaving his brother Nicholas as 
hostage for his return. Having his coat riddled with 
bullets, as if pursued, he carried out his programme 
successfully. Some Indians, friendly to Americans, 
communicated similar information, and even spread 



49 

a report of the total defeat of General Burgoyne's 
army. [This from an old pictorial history of United 
States by Robert Shaw]. 

The Indians, who had expected to share in the 
plunder, with nothing to do but sit and look on while 
the redcoats whipped the rebels, were bitterly dis- 
appointed and sought safety in flight. St. Leger was 
obliged to raise the siege and retreat, leaving the 
tents standing; his baggage, ammunition and stores 
falling into the hands of the provincials. When 
Arnold reached Fort Schuyler there was no need of 
his assistance. The loyalists became timid after this 
reverse, and many among them began to doubt suc- 
cess which had seemed so near. The colonists, on 
the contrary, were now convinced that nothing but 
a unity of purpose and steady exertions were required 
to win their way to freedom. It gives me great 
pleasure, at this late day, after ioo years of obloquy, 
to lift one name from the mire into which it has been 
thrust by so many of our famed historians. Simms, 
Benton and others have represented Han Yost Schuy- 
ler as a poor, demented fool, while they did not 
deny his bravery and courage ; but it has always 
seemed a very strange thing that so wise a man as 
Arnold should have entrusted so important a mission 
to a half-witted idiot. There was no reason in it — 
it was amission requiring the keenest wit and wisdom. 
Odd he may have been, and with Tory proclivities, 
but in that he did not stand alone in the valley, 
many brave and good men looking upon themselves 
as traitors to their king and country if they took up 
arms in aid of the rebels. That depended upon the 
point of view from which they looked. But our 
historian, Robert Shaw, in his valuable old history 

4 



50 

published back in the forties, says "Schuyler was a 
man of wealth and influence;" at least, we know, his 
father, Peter D. Schuyler, had been a prominent man 
in Albany and central New York ; a man of means 
and influence, who, with his father, David Schuyler, 
had purchased, in 1755, a large tract of land, 43,000 
acres, near Schuylers lake, and had lived there with 
his family when not at their city home in Albany. 
He had married, in 1743, Elizabeth Barbara Herki- 
mer, eldest sister of General Herkimer. Their mar- 
riage is recorded in the old Dutch church at Albany. 
He died in 1763, while a comparatively young man, 
only forty years of age, but leaving a large fortune 
to his wife and children, while Simms and Benton 
have represented the mother and the children as 
being little better than gypsies. 

In June, 1783, Washington, from Schenectady, sent 
Captain Thompson with an escort to go with a flag of 
truce to the fort at Oswego, to communicate to them 
the details of the treaty of peace and the cessation of 
hostilities. It was the 18th of April, 1783, the party 
set out, stopping over night at Mr. Schuyler's at 
Fall Hill. This was another son of Peter Schuyler, 
deceased. At Fort Herkimer, where they halted, 
they were joined by David Schuyler, a brother of the 
Schuyler with whom they had lodged the previous 
night. He accompanied the party as a guide and 
interpreter to their destination at the fort at Oswego. 
The story of their journey and their reception at the 
fort by the officers in charge is full of interest, but 
has many times been recounted. A brother and 
sister of the Schuylers had been carried captives to 
Canada by the Tories. The boy Nicholas, who had 
been kept as hostage by Arnold, could not have been 




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more than seventeen years old. Bein'g at one time 
pursued by the Indians he reached his sister's home 
at the Fort Herkimer, and calling for admittance, 
told her he had been wounded and was being pur- 
sued by the Indians. His sister unbarred the door, 
admitting him in the dark, not daring to strike a 
light. He climbed to the loft, where she covered him 
over with bags of grain and hay; then descending to 
the floor below, with a file scraped the boards so that 
no drop of blood might be found to betray his pres- 
ence, working all the time in the darkness. Towards 
morning the Indians came pounding at the door, and 
on being admitted searched the house in vain, not 
finding what they sought. This story was often told 
in her old age by my great-grandmother Catharine 
Schuyler Herkimer to her grandchildren, my father 
among them ; the fugitive being her young brother 
Nicholas Schuyler. 

The treaty of alliance with France was signed on 
the 6th day of March, just six months after Oriskany. 
The courts of Europe had begun to appreciate the 
ability of the colonists and their soldiery. American 
independence had now become a possibility. 

In July, 1782, a band of Tories and Indians under 
Brant came into the Mohawk valley; they were dis- 
covered early one morning by our vigilant scouts, 
who were always on the lookout. One of these, an 
Oneida Indian, was called " Good Pete." The 
Oneidas were our allies during the war. Peter was 
an Indian runner and gave the alarm to the inhabit- 
ants that Brant was coming with his warriors. The 
inhabitants of the valley east of Fort Herkimer who 
could not reach that fort were gathered together by 
Mr. Jacob Casler and taken to the ravine on the 



52 

north side of the river for safety, where they remained 
hidden near the gulf bridge for two days when they 
returned to their homes. 

Delia Herkimer, sister of General Herkimer and 
wife of Colonel Peter Bellinger, was in her house 
when the Indian " runner " passed. He called : " Flee 
for your lives, Brant is coming." Hastily she gath- 
ered a few provisions and with her children and a 
sick daughter-in-law fled to the river, where she found 
a canoe and paddled to the island called Hanson's 
Island, which is near Little Falls, where they con- 
cealed themselves anions the bushes and remained 
for two days and two nights. These were the times 
that tried men's souls — when father warred against 
son and brother against brother in this great struggle 
for independence, and those who had knelt at the 
same altar became the most deadly foes. 

General Herkimer was made a Mason in St. 
Patrick's Lodge, No. 8, now No. 4, of Johnstown, 
receiving his first degree April 7, 1 768. The lodge 
held its first meeting on the 23d of August of that 
year, Sir William Johnson installed as master; Guy 
Johnson, senior warden ; Daniel Claus, junior war- 
den ; John Butler, treasurer, and Robert Adam, 
secretary. 

It is quite remarkable that at that time and until 
the outbreak of the war, although the members of 
the lodge were widely scattered, the country being 
sparsely settled, yet one night in each month these 
men, faithful to their craft, were in attendance at the 
meetings of their lodge. 

A room in the old baronial mansion of Sir William 
Johnson was occupied as their lodge room. This 
historic building is still standing, as is the old church 



53 

at Johnstown, near by which lie the remains of Sir 
William Johnson, marked by a slab bearing his name 
and the date of his birth and death : " Sir William 
Johnson, Baronet, born 171 5, died 1774." Associ- 
ated with the names of the Herkimers are, among 
other names noted in the valley, that of Hendrick 
Frey, who married a sister of General Herkimer, 
Elizabeth, the sixth daughter. The father of Hen- 
drick Frey had been among the first settlers in the 
valley. Major John Frey, the brother of Hendrick 
Frey, a staunch patriot, had married Katharine Shoe- 
maker, a daughter of Gertrude Herkimer, sister of 
the general Gertrude Shoemaker's first husband, 
Lieutenant Wormuth, was killed at Oriskany, toma- 
hawked by Brant. 

Gertrude Eacher, daughter of George Herkimer, 
was the wife of Jacob Eacher, brother of the George 
Eacher who fought the duel with young Philip Ham- 
ilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, whose wife was 
Elizabeth Schuyler, daughter of General Philip 
Schuyler. It is said that Hamilton never blamed 
young Eacher for the death of his son and always 
treated him with marked friendliness. In those days 
of duels it was the only way, according to the minds 
of the men of that age, to resent an insult, and young 
Eacher would have been despised by his fellows if 
he had not followed the customs of the day. (Ham- 
ilton, the general, born 1757, commander-in-chief 
1799, died 1819.) 

Jacob Eacher, Sr., removed from Schoharie to 
Palatine in 1723 ; he is said to have been the father 
of twenty-one children. His oldest son George mar- 
ried Eliza Snell ; Jacob, who became a judge, mar- 
ried Margaret Frank ; he had two sons, George and 



54 

Jacob, Jr., and four daughters; Margaret married a 
Van Slyke ; Maria married a Waggoner, and Eliza 
married Jacob Fox. Jacob I. Eacher married Ger- 
trude Herkimer, daughter of George Herkimer, 
brother of the general. Mrs. Eacher died in 1873, 
aged eighty-eight years; Mr. Eacher died in 1851. 
June nth, at the twelfth meeting of the Palatine 
committee of safety, Joseph Herkimer, Jr., took the 
oath to support American liberty; August 8, 1775, 
George Herkimer, with three others, took the oath 
at the twenty-fifth meeting, Nicholas Herkimer, 
chairman, John Eisenbald, clerk. 

Catharine Bellinger, daughter of Delia Herkimer, 
married Lieutenant Petry, who was killed at Oriskany ; 
she had one child ; for her second husband she mar- 
ried Johannes Bellinger. Gertrude Bellinger, born 
1763, married 1782 Nicholas Casler ; she died in 
April, 183 1. 

Henry Herkimer left, at his death, five sons and 
five daughters ; how many of them were married at 
the time of his death I do not know. He seems to 
have died possessed of large property, as in his will, 
after setting aside to his beloved wife Catharine a 
certain amount, he gives to each of his sons and 
daughters large amounts of land and other property. 
He with his father had been joint proprietors of the 
Fall Hill patent and the other lands given him by 
his father. In his will he says if his son Joseph, after 
the death of his brother John, became his grand- 
father's heir, in that case he was only to have a smaller 
share of his own estate ; but in case he did not become 
the heir to his grandfather's estate, then he was to 
share equally with his brothers in the division of his 
own estate. His five sons were Joseph, Jr., Nicholas, 



55 

Abraham, George and Henry; his daughters were 
Catharine, Elizabeth, Magdalene, Anna and Ger- 
trude. Joseph, his eldest son, married, about 1 776 or 
1777, his cousin Katharine E. Schuyler, daughter of 
Elizabeth Barbara Herkimer and Peter D. Schuyler; 
they had four daughters, Mary, born 1778, married 
1797 to William Tygert ; she died the following year 
leaving a baby daughter who afterward, in 18 19, mar- 
ried John I. Cristman ; Catharine, born October 23, 
1780, married Elijah Strong, died July 23, 1847; 
Nancy, born 1784, married James Campbell, died 
185 1 ; Dorothy or Dolly, born December 23, 1788, 
married James Fox, October 4, 1801, died May 3, 
1867. Abraham and George Herkimer, sons of 
Henry, were present at the interview of General 
Herkimer with Brant. ^George Herkimer, son of 
Henry, left four sons, Henry G., Timothy and George, 
who lived in 1854 near Schuyler's Lake, and William 
Herkimer, who lived in Chautauqua county in i860. 
(The general's nephew, Henry Herkimer, son of 
Henry, left Joseph, Henry and Robert H., the first, 
Joseph, in Otsego county, the two latter, Henry and 
Robert H., in Michigan ; Abraham Herkimer's 
descendants removed to Pennsylvania. To whom 
the daughters of Henry Herkimer were married I 
have not been able to learn. 

When the Erie canal was first built, the south 
bank of the canal came within about eight feet of 
the walls of the old fort, and included the well which, 
fed by a spring of pure water, had kept, I am told, a 
constant supply of water of the coldest and best in 
sufficient quantities not only for the use of the home, 
but for the garrison as well. The spring supplying 
the well was in the cellar of the house. In the 



56 

enlargement of the canal in 1840, it took in nearly 
one-half of the old Herkimer house, the property 
being then sold to the State. At the opening of the 
canal for public traffic, the ceremony of which took 
place October 26, 1825, there was great rejoicing 
throughout the whole length of the State ; minute 
guns were fired when the boats left Buffalo, and at 
intervals of twenty minutes all along the way from 
Buffalo to Albany and down the Hudson to Sandy 
Hook. These guns were within hearing distance of 
each other to signal the progress of the boats. 
There was a gun at Fort Herkimer, one at Little 
Falls, one at the hill at Frankfort, and one at Utica 
just west of the site of the lunatic asylum. Henry 
Strong, a grandson of Joseph Herkimer, one of the 
contractors for building the locks and bridges on the 
canal, had told me many times of his first trip through 
the Erie canal, with the governor and other notables, 
on board these boats, gay with bunting, and the 
banks of the canal crowded with people ; and how 
they carried pails or buckets of water from Lake 
Erie to Sandy Hook to consummate the wedding of 
the Lakes with Old Ocean. It was a great day for 
New York, and one long to be remembered. 

Among the patentees of the Stone Arabia tract, 
which is a part of the Palatine tract granted October 
19, 1723, were the Mayers (Myers), Diefendorfs, 
Foxes, Hendrick Frey and Warner Dygert. 

Hendrick Frey had gone upon these lands over 
twenty years before. The Foxes and Wagners went 
upon Geroga Creek among the earliest removals 
from Schoharie, one of the former families, the Foxes, 
erecting upon that stream the first saw-mill in the 
west, or west of Schenectady. 



57 

Warner Tygert's name is among the patentees of 
the Burnetts-field tract, but whether he is the same 
Warner Tygert who married Lana, the sister of 
General Herkimer, and was also the brother of Gen- 
eral Herkimer's wife Myra, I cannot learn. It seems 
to me that this first Warner Tygert must have been 
of a generation older, possibly the father of the 
younger Warner Tygert or the father of Peter S. 
Tygert, General Herkimer's father-in-law. Hendrick 
Mayer, Thomas Shoemaker, Margaret Bellinger, 
Frederick Bellinger, Johannes Bellinger, Rudolph 
Shoemaker and Peter Bellinger are among many 
others of the Palatine settlers, including the Herki- 
mers. I have no intention in this article of noting 
down the names of all the patentees, but only the 
names of those I find connected by marriage with 
the Herkimer families. The family of the Schuylers 
into which the eldest daughter, Elizabeth Barbara, 
married I shall leave until later. 

Governor Burnet, as the successor of Governor 
Hunter, found that he had " troubles of his own," to use 
a modern phrase, though they had been bequeathed 
to him by his predecessor. The purchase from the 
Indians had been an easy matter ; a little rum and 
tobacco, some scarlet cloth and a few gaudy trinkets 
would purchase many broad acres of good land ; but 
he found the Palatines harder to deal with, and, as 
he said: "They had done much to mispresent him." 
A few cunning persons, he declared, led all the rest as 
they pleased. The coming of the Palatines to these 
colonies is thus alluded to in Smith's history of New 
York: " The Queen's liberality to these people was 
not more beneficial to them than serviceable to the 
colony." The House of Commons, among other 



58 

strictures on the conduct of the late ministry, said : 
"Take notice of the squandering of great sums upon 
the Palatines, who are a useless people, a mixture 
of all religions and dangerous to the constitution," 
and they held that those who advised the bringing 
them over were enemies to the queen and kingdom. 
(Holme's vol. 2, p. 177.) 

The poor Palatines, though they later stood as the 
advance guard to receive the brunt of the battle, 
were at their coming beset by foes both in front and 
rear. 

As King Hendrick says in his famous letter: "The 
commissioners quarrel among themselves as to who 
shall have our lands, and such a quarrel will end in 
our destruction or theirs. The government, also, 
quarrels over who shall have the land ; this is our 
place of treaty, the commissioners are here, but they 
do not want us to smoke with them, but the Indians 
of Canada come and smoke here for the sake of 
their homes. We would have had Crown Point but 
you hindered us, it is your fault, instead you burned 
your own fort at Saratoga and ran away from it, 
which was a shame and a scandal, look about you, 
you have no fortifications about you, not even in this 
city, which is but one step to Canada, and the French 
can easily come and turn you out of doors. You 
desire us to speak from our hearts, and we shall do 
it. Look about you and see all their homes full of 
people, many have gone to Canada taking all the 
powder and lead and guns which the French may 
now make use of in the Ohio country. They are for- 
tifying everywhere. The French are men, but we 
are ashamed to say it, you are women, here and 
everywhere without fortifications. Hendrick." 



59 

This was hardly a just judgment of the Palatines, 
for when the tocsin of war sounded they were not 
found wanting, and proved not only their own valor, 
but the wisdom of the provincial councils in placing 
them as a living barrier between the east and the 
west. Men from many nations had contributed to 
the growth and upbuilding of our country. Among 
the many names prominent of our great men, Schuy- 
ler was of Holland, Herkimer of German, Jay of 
French, Livingston of Scotch, Clinton of Irish, 
Morris of Welsh, and Hoffman of Swedish descent ; 
Hamilton, born on one of the West India islands, 
and Baron Steuben, a Prussian. 

After the battle of Oriskany General Washington 
wrote, " Herkimer first reversed the gloomy scene of 
the national campaign. " 

General Herkimer was twice married ; first, to a 
sister of Peter S. Tygert, then to his daughter. He 
had no children by either wife, and after his death 
his widow married again, it was said, to someone far 
beneath her in social life ; however, she removed to 
Canada and nothing is known of her since. Gen- 
eral Herkimer was a man of many sterling quali- 
ties, much beloved by all his friends. He died pos- 
sesed of a large property which he disposed of by 
will among his friends and relatives, giving to his 
brother George his homestead, and to each of his 
nephews, who were godsons, 200 acres of land. 
There were, I think, two Nicholas Herkimers 
named in his will, Nicholas Rosecranz, the son of his 
sister Mary; Nicholas Schuyler, the son of his sister 
Barbara, and Nicholas Ten Broeck, the son of his 
sister Anna. General Herkimer, in his last will, 
besides mentioning his brothers and the nephews 



6o 

who were named for him, names his sisters Elizabeth 
Barbara, Gertrude, Madaline, Delia, Mary, Elizabeth, 
Anna and Catharin - ; his nephews Nicholas, Han 
Yost, George and Henry, and his niece Elizabeth, 
all children of his brother Henry; Nicol, son of 
his brother John Joseph ; Nicholas, son of Peter D. 
Schuyler, and his sister Barbara ; to his godson 
Nicholas, and to his heirs forever, 250 acres of wood- 
land ; also his best suit of clothes, from head to 
heels, to Nicholas Rosecranz and Nicholas Ten 
Broeck, each 200 acres of land. 

General Herkimer's home is fully described in 
Benton's Herkimer County, p. 124. It is still 
standing on the south bank of the Mohawk river at 
Danube, in full view of the New York Central Rail- 
road. In 1760 his father had given him 500 acres of 
land on which he built this house which, at his death, 
became the property and home of his brother George. 
In its day it was considered a very fine mansion, and 
is still in good condition. The house is about two 
and one-half miles from Little Falls. It was built of 
imported brick, so the old stories run, but that last 
point has, of late, been disputed, as it is said there 
were brickmakers among the laborers on the estate 
of Sir William Johnson ; and the brick for both 
General Herkimer's home and Sir William's were 
made in this vicinity. Which of these tales are 
correct I cannot say. The old histories of my child- 
hood said the bricks were imported. The mansion 
was said to have cost about $8,000. General Herki- 
mer's grave was marked by a marble slab bearing the 
inscription, "General Nicholas Herkimer, died ten 
days after the battle of Oriskany, in which he received 
the wounds which caused his death." The slab was 



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6i 

erected by Warren Herkimer, a grandnephew of the 
general, who, in 1848, resided at Little Falls, but 
since then is a resident of Janesville, Wisconsin. 
The cemetery is located two miles east of Little 
Falls, and very near the old brick mansion which 
was the General's home and where he died. At the 
foot of the General's grave lie the remains of his 
brother, George Herkimer, and his wife. He mar- 
ried Alida Schuyler, but of which family of Schuyler 
I do not know. She might have been the sister of 
his brother-in-law, Peter D. Schuyler, who had a sis- 
ter named Alida. George Herkimer died in 1788. 
His wife Alida lived until the year 1830. At his 
death he left his son John, who, in 1822, was a mem- 
ber of Assembly. 

Incidents of the War. 

Christian Sharrar, living near Fort Herkimer, was 
killed at Oriskany, leaving a widow and two 
daughters, Margaret and Nancy, aged seven and 
nine years. 

On the morning of October 20, 1778, these sisters, 
with a little friend, Lucinda Bellinger, aged eight 
years, went with a female slave to look for the cows 
back of the fort. At a hickory tree, a quarter of a 
mile away, the three girls lingered to gather nuts not 
far from the farmhouse of James Edick. The black 
woman had gone on ahead but a short distance when 
she discovered half a dozen Indians approaching and 
turned fleeing to the fort, shouting to the children as 
she passed : " Wilden Kummer," the Indians are 
coming. The girls, not realizing their danger, 
lingered, and in another moment a party of Tusca- 
roras, headed by a sachem called Flat Kop, were at 



62 

the tree. The girls hid among the branches hoping 
to escape observation, but the delusion was fatal. 
They were ordered down, the two sisters obeying, but 
the little Bellinger girl, refusing to come down, was 
shot dead by Flat Kop, the other children being 
caught up immediately by the Indians, who hurried 
away with them to the forest. The report of the gun, 
with the screams of the old negress, alarmed the gar- 
rison. Lucinda's brother, who was working in a 
barn near by, reached there in time to prevent his 
sister being scalped, Flat Kop hurrying off after his 
braves in order to save his own scalp when he saw 
the troops approaching. They did not succeed in 
recapturing the two sisters, who, as soon as they were 
safe from pursuit, were made to walk until they 
became footsore when they were placed astride an 
old horse that had been stolen in the neighborhood. 
Nancy, the younger of the girls, often fell off for 
which Flat Kop threatened to kill her. Her life was, 
however, spared at the intercession of a Tory who 
joined the party at the old Shoemaker place where 
Ezekiel Spencer formerly lived and where they had 
obtained breakfast. Upon reaching the Indian coun- 
try Flat Kop, who had no children, adopted the little 
Sharrer girls as his own. Their Indian mother was 
very kind to them ; when their red father came home 
drunk, which happened quite frequently, the squaw 
mother would conceal them beyond his reach. When, 
at the close of the war, they were ransomed after 
nearly five years of captivity, they had quite forgotten 
their native language. Their foster mother, whom 
they loved very much, came with them as far as Fort 
Stanwix, telling them if their white mother was not 
good to them to send her word and she would come 



63 

after them. Their parting with her was very sad, 
they had become in all but color two little squaws. 
When brought into their native valley, once more 
thoroughly washed and clad again in costumes like 
their neighbors, they were two very pretty children, 
but during the transformation from filth to cleanliness 
and the removal of their Indian toggery they fought 
like wild beasts, and Nancy, the youngest, had to 
have her hands tied to prevent her tearing her 
clothes off. She begged to go back to her Indian 
mother and had to be watched for some time to pre- 
vent her from seeking her way back to Canada, 
shrieking for her red mother to come to her aid. 
The kindness of those in the old home and the old 
associations finally reconciled her, and when she was 
eighteen she was married to Peter Fox, of Fort 
Herkimer, and raised a family of six children, living 
in her old age with her son Frederick Fox, of Ilion, 
and died in 1845. These tales of the past told to 
our mothers by the participants did not seem so far 
away as to us of the present day. The old lady was 
the grandmother of Dr. Eli Fox, of Mohawk, who 
related the foregoing incident. I have heard my 
mother many times also tell to us children the same 
story as heard from the old lady herself. Margaret, 
the other sister, married George Edick, and died in 
1827. 

Melchoir Folts, who came with the first immigra- 
tion, married Catrina, daughter of John Jost Petrie. 
He died in 1807, aged ninety-seven years. He had 
two sons and eight daughters. His son Jacob died 
young. Conrad Folts married Anna Dygert, whose 
mother was Magdalene (Lana) Herkimer, sister of 
General Herkimer. Conrad died in 1793, leaving 



64 

seven sons and two daughters His oldest son Jacob, 
born 1775, married Elizabeth Steele, or Staley, in 
1795. She was the daughter of George Steele and 
Dorothy Shoemaker. Johannes and Nicholas Kess- 
ler, now called Casler, came from the Palatinate of 
Alsace, on the lower Rhine, in 1710. They settled 
in the Mohawk valley on the south side of the river 
in 1 72 1. Jacob Casler, son of Nicholas, married, in 
1750, Delia, daughter of John Jost Petrie ; they had 
six children. Nicholas, one of the sons, married 
Gertrude, daughter of Colonel Peter Bellinger and 
Delia Herkimer. She was born July 18, 1764; died 
April 5, 1 83 1. They had ten children, six sons and 
four daughters. Peter B. Casler married Betsy Eys- 
man ; Richard married Jane Young ; Robert Casler 
married Zina Zoller ; Nicholas Casler married Polly 
Starring ; Madaline married Jacob Vrooman ; Delia 
Casler married Jacob Harter ; their children were 
Gertrude, Catharine, and Mary. 

Extract from Utica paper November 13, 1901 : 
"Enoch Snell, born October 21, 18 1 2, died at his 
residence at West St. Johnsville November 10, 1901. 
He was the oldest member of a family whose records 
are a part of American history. In 1775 a tract of 
3,600 acres was granted to John Jost Snell and Jacob 
Timmerman. Messrs. Snell and Timmerman settled 
on the tract and improved and developed its natural 
advantages, and their descendants are known as 
Snells, Timmermans, and Zimmermans. 

" The original deed was until recently in the pos- 
session of the family. Nine of the members of this 
family joined General Herkimer's expedition for the 
relief of Fort Schuyler and bore their part in that 
Thermopylae of the new world when, on that August 



6 S 

day, the fate of a continent was decided in the marshes 
of Oriskany. It was that day that made Saratoga a 
possibility. Of the nine Snells in that battle who 
left Fort Dayton with General Herkimer but two 
returned to their homes. Enoch Snell was the son 
of Sufferenas Snell. The father of Enoch Snell was 
long a prominent figure in the town of Manheim, he 
dying in 1872." 

It was not poverty that drove the Palatines to leave 
their native land, it was the cruelty and desolation 
falling alike upon high and low, from the prince in 
his palace to the peasant in his cottage ; all alike felt 
the heavy hand of Louis XIV. and his successors. 

In this new land to which they had fled the bonds 
uniting them had become still stronger; united not 
only by one common peril they had become by many 
marriages almost as one family. John Jost Herkimer 
left five sons and eight daughters ; the eight daughters 
with their children had, by their marriages, blended 
the name of Herkimer with that of many others. 

At their old home at the German Flatts the name 
of Herkimer has almost passed away. Nicholas and 
John left no children ; the descendants of Joseph 
were in Canada ; the descendants of Henry and 
George are widely scattered. 

In an old account book kept by one Thomas Cun- 
ningham at German Flatts I find in May, 1778, a 
charge against Henry Herkimer for " liquor for the 
club," at the election of governor, nine shillings, four 
pence. It seems even in those far-away days they 
had clubs and celebrated elections. In the same 
year, in April, Rev. Abraham Rosecranz is charged 
with one half-pound of snuff and a yard and a quarter 
of black lace ; and in July with three skeins of silk, 
5 



66 

one-half paper of pins at nine pence, and two more 
skeins of silk. Evidently the good dominie had been 
shopping for his wife, though he purchased also some 
powder and shot for himself. Joseph Herkimer is 
charged with a long account, settled in 1791 — nips 
of grog, costs of suit, etc., etc. 

As many of the Herkimers as I am able to trace I 
will give on the following page : 



(Ergheimer) Herkimer Genealogy. 

1 st generation : 

Came from Germany. (Jurgh) George Herkimer, 
wife Madaline. 

2d generation : 

Johan Jost Herkimer, wife Catharine. 

3d generation : 

1. Nicholas, b. 1728, m. 1st Lany Tygert, 2d 
Myra Tygert, d. August, 1777. 

2. Henry, b. 1730, wife Catharine; he d. 1779. 

3. John Joseph, d. 1787. 

4. George, m. Alyda Schuyler, d. 1786. 

5. John, d. 1817. 

Elizabeth Barbara, b. 1726, m. 1743, d. 1800; m. 
Peter D. Schuyler. 

Gertrude, m. 1st Lieut. Worsmeth, killed at 
Oriskany ; 2d Rudolph Shoemaker ; dau Katharine 
m. Major John Frey ; killed at Oriskany. 

Delia, m. Colonel Peter Bellinger ; dau. Katharine 



67 

m. i st Lieut. Petrie, 2d John Bellinger; their dau. 
Gertrude m. Nicholas Casler, dau. Anna m. Conrad 
Folts. 

Madaline, m. 1st Warner Dygert, 2d Nicholas 
Snell. 

Catharine, m, George Henry Bell, 

Elizabeth, m. Hendrick Frey, d. 1820. 

Mary. m M April, 1758, Rev. Abraham Rosecranz ; 
son Nicholas. 

Anna, m. Peter Ten Broeck ; this son Nicholas, 
grandson Peter. 

4th generation : 

Henry Herkimer and his wife Catharine had ten 
children. 

1. Joseph, b. Oct. 1751, m. 1777 or 1778 to 
Catharine Elizabeth Schuyler, daughter of Peter D. 
Schuyler. 

2. Nicholas. 

3. Abraham. 
. 4. George. 

5. Henry. 

6. Catharine, m. Peter Schuyler. 

7. Elizabeth. 

8. Gertrude, m. Mr. Burr; had one daughter mar- 
ried to Mr. Buckly, of Watertown, Jefferson Co., 
N. Y. 

9. Magdaline. 

10. Anna. 

The order of their births I could not learn. 

Joseph and Nicholas are the only names I could 
learn of the children of Joseph, son of Johan Jost. 

The children of George have been given elsewhere, 
and also those of the daughters, as far as I learned 
them. 



68 



THE SCHUYLERS. 



The records of the colony, as preserved by the 
State, begin with the year 1632, when Director Kieft 
assumed control over the affairs of the New Nether- 
lands. 

In April, 1620, the great West India Company 
was formed and incorporated by the States-General. 
In 1623 the West India Company erected a fort on 
Manhattan Island, another on the Delaware and 
rebuilt the one at Albany, called Fort Orange. In 
1636 Manhattan was bought of its Indian owners for 
sixty guilders, (a guilder being five dollars) they also 
purchased Gouverner's and Staten Island. In 1644 
the population of New Amsterdam was 3,400, the 
whole population of the New Netherlands in 1656 
being 8,000. The merchants of Amsterdam, by their 
ventures in all parts of the world, had become as rich 
as princes. 

From the first discovery the Dutch recognized in 
the natives a kind of title to the lands, and always 
procured the consent of owners by purchase, or other- 
wise, before occupying them. In 1632, Director Van 
Twiller bought land at the mouth of the Connecticut 
river on which he erected a pole bearing the national 
arms, thus giving notice to the world that the coun- 
try belonged to the Dutch, or was under the juris- 
diction of Holland. Motley says "The ocean is the 
birth right of the Dutch." They were the first free 
nation to put a girdle around the world. They had 
acquired the supremacy of the seas and had become 
the greatest commercial nation in the world. They 



6 9 

had three thousand ships at sea and a hundred 
thousand sailors. They had the carrying trade of 
Europe and the Dutch of the New Netherlands 
maintained the reputation of their fathers. 

Six years after the first settlement of the English 
in Boston the Puritans had founded Harvard Col- 
lege. In Holland the love of learning was a passion, 
no country had more men eminent for learning or pro- 
duced more popular authors ; our greatest painters and 
musicians came from among the German speaking 
people. Among the most prominent of the early 
Dutch settlers we find the " Schuylers." It has been 
said by some one of the learned men of America, who 
have made its early history a study, that " the claim 
of the Schuylers in the history of the nation is a 
large one," The family as a family did much for the 
making of the greatness of America ; none more 
imperial in their views and plans, or such factors in 
checking, first the rapacity of the powers of France, 
and later those of Great Britain. There is none 
that can successfully dispute with them the right to 
be entitled, " The greatest family in America." As 
the years passed on, indeed, they became connected 
by the alliance of marriage with nearly all the prom- 
inent American families of the first two centuries of 
Americanism. 

Of this family the two first represented in America 
were Philip Pieterson and his brother David Pieter- 
son Schuyler, whose names are as familiar to most 
readers of American history as their own or their 
father's names. They came to this country some- 
time in 1647 or '50 as intimate friends of Von 
Sclichtenhurst, the director. As their names would 
imply they were sons of Peter Schuyler. In the six- 



70 

teenth century, and later, the name of the father with 
the addition of son or se was given to the sons, thus 
showing whose sons they were. Thus Philip Peter- 
son Schuyler meant Philip, the son of Peter Schuyler ; 
David Peterson Schuyler, David, the son of Peter 
Schuyler, whose father's name was also David, as he 
was called Peter Davidse Schuyler, of Cologne, Ger- 
many, a merchant of wealth and standing, who mar- 
ried Gertrude Catharine, daughter of one Cors 
Jansen Bucyk, a well-known family of Amsterdam, 
which produced many magistrates and public men. 
Born some time previous to 1630 were the two sons 
of Peter and Gertrude Von Bucyk Schuyler, well 
brought up as became their station, men of affairs, 
with energy and ambition. The stories of the new 
world in far-off America were to them like new wine 
from the vintage, and when Von Sclichtenhurst, a 
man of means and influence, took ship for America 
as the representative and agent of Killion Van 
Rensselaer, the great diamond merchant, young 
Philip Piete.rson Von Schuyler, as they spelled it 
then, the elder of the two brothers, and already the 
sworn gallant of the pretty Margarita, daughter of 
the director, decided to accompany the party and 
make his venture, too, in the new world. Whether 
David accompanied his brother at this time or 
followed later I do not know. It was evidently 
in his case also, among other things, a pair of 
bright eyes were among the attractions. Philip's 
wooing prospered in his new home, though, I 
think, there was no lack of gallants. At any rate 
the records say that at Fort Orange on Decem- 
ber 12, 1650, Philip Pieterson Von Schuyler was 
married to Margarita Von Sclichtenhurst, daughter of 



7i 

Brant Arent Von Sclichtenhurst, who came to this 
country in 1647 as director of the colonies of Van 
Rensselaer, and president of justice, manager of the 
whole estates of the Patroon. He brought with him 
his family, including the young daughter Margarita, 
aged nineteen, and a son Gerrit Von Sclichtenhurst, 
who afterward became the father-in-law of young 
Peter David Schuyler, son of the first David. It 
was near the end of June, 1652, that this son Gerrit 
was assailed in the streets by a party of Stuyvesant's 
men and badly beaten. Young Philip Schuyler, who 
but little more than a year ago had married his sister 
Margaret, championed his cause and in his endeavor 
to save his brother-in-law a general fracas ensued. 
Von Sclichtenhurst, the director, came from New 
Kerge, in Guelderland. He was an energetic man, full 
of loyalty to his young master and inspired with that 
Dutch spirit of independence born centuries before 
among the Batavian marshes. He became a rival in 
authority of Stuyvesant himself ; his controversies 
with Stuyvesant and battles with the Colonial author- 
ities in his defense of the young Patroon are matters 
of larger histories. 

The Schuyler brothers were highly connected in 
Holland, in their home city. They had a country 
seat near Dordrecht ; ancient pieces of silver plate, 
with the family arms and year marks engraved on 
them, are still in possession of descendants of the 
family. The family crest, a hooded falcon perched 
upon the arm of the falconer, surmounted by a hel- 
met of steel, in profile, open faced, three bars, crest 
out of a wreath argent and sable, a falcon on the 
shield. These attest to the opulence of the family 
previous to their appearance in America. They had 



72 

come out in connection with the Dutch West India 
Company. 

Philip Schuyler's first appearance in public life was 
in November, 1655, as a delegate to the Indians ; in 
the same year he was appointed magistrate, and in 
1667 captain of militia. He was a wealthy man and 
a landed proprietor; he died in 1683 and was buried 
in the church at Albany. (From Biographical En- 
cyclopedia.) 

In the old Dutch church at Albany, built in 1656, 
there was a beautiful memorial window with the coat 
of arms of the Schuyler family. This coat of arms 
must have belonged to the father's family in Holland, 
as no such distinction was granted them after their 
arrival in this country. 

Philip Schuyler and his wife Margaret had a large 
family of children. I shall give their names here in 
order to show their intermarriages with other promi- 
nent families of the state ; his wife Margarita out- 
lived him many years. She was a very capable 
business woman, managing her large estates with 
great discretion. Their second son Peter, "Quidor" 
the Indians called him, born September 17, 1657, was 
the first Mayor of Albany. He married Maria Van 
Rensselaer, daughter of the Patroon, July 22, 1688, 
and died in 1721. He was acting Governor of the 
Province in 1 7 1 9, during the absence of Governor 
Burnett. Philip Peter, eldest son of Peter and 
Maria Van Rensselaer, born January 15, 1696, mar- 
ried, 1 719, his cousin Margaret, daughter of Johannes 
Schuyler, and died February 16, 1758. 




SCHUYLER COAT OF ARMS. 



73 

Children of Philip Peter Schuyler and Mar- 
garet Von Sclichtenhurst. 

2d generation : 

1652, Gysbert, b. July 22, d. young. 
1654, Feb. 4, Gertrude, m. 1671, Stephen Van 
Cortland. 

1656, Feb. 28, Alyda, m. Feb. 10, 1675, Rev. Nicho- 
las Van Rensselaer ; for her second husband Robert 
Livingston. 

1657, Sept. 17, Pieter, m. 1681, Engeltie Von 
Schaick, d. Feb., 1724. 

1659, Dec. 18, Brant, m. 1682, Cornelia Van Cort- 
land, d. 1702. 

1662, June 25, Arent, m. 1648, Jenneka Teller, 
2d, 1724, Maria Walter. 

1664, Nov. 13, Sybilla, d. young. 

1666, Feb. 8, Philip, m. 1687, Elizabeth D., 2d, 
1 719, Catharine d. 1724. 

1668, April 2, Johannes, m. Elizabeth Staats, d. 
1747. 

1672, Jan. 2, Margaret, m. 1691, 1st Jacobus Ver 
Planck, 2d, John Collins. 

Gertrude Schuyler and Stephen Van Cortland had 
children. 

3d generation : 

Gertrude, b. 1688, m. Colonel Henry Beekman. 
Elizabeth, b. 1691, m. Rev. William Skinner. 
Johannes m. Anna Van Schaick, their daughter 
Gertrude m. Philip Ver Planck. 



74 

Margaret, m. ist Samuel Bayard, 2d Peter Kem- 
ball. 

Anna, m. Stephen De Lancy; their first son was 
chief justice of New York and lieutenant-governor. 

Maria, m. Killian Van Rensselaer, 2d John Millar. 

Philip, m. Catharine De Peyster. 

Stephen, m. Catharine Staats. 

Catharine, m. Andrew Johnston. 

Cornelia, in. John Schuyler, her cousin, son of 
John Schuyler of Albany, and was the mother of 
Major-General Schuyler. Cornelia Van Cortland 
Schuyler and David Schuyler were second cousins. 

Alida Schuyler, widow of Rev. Nicholas Van 
Rensselaer, married for her second husband Robert 
Livingston. The children by this marriage will be 
given later. 

2d generation : 

Arent Schuyler, m. for his third wife Mary Walter, 
daughter of Robert Walter, and granddaughter of 
Jacob Lesler and Elsie Tymens. At his death his 
widow m. Dec. 1736, Archibald Kennedy, receiver- 
general and collector of customs. Arent Schuyler, 
by his second marriage with Swantie Dyckman, had 
five children. 

3d generation : 

John, m. Anna Van Rensselaer, daughter of the 
Patroon. Peter, m. Hester Walter ; 2d, Mary ( Walter. 
Adoniah, m. Gertrude Van Rensselaer ; Eve Schuy- 
ler m. Peter Bayard ; Cornelia, m. Pierre DePeyster; 
Philip Schuyler, m. Hester Kingsland. 



75 

4th generation : 

Casper Schuyler, son of Philip and Hester Kings- 
land, m. B , his daughter Hester. 

5th generation : 

Hester Schuyler, m. William Colfax, grandfather 
of Schuyler Colfax, vice-president of the United 
States; Arent Schuyler, m. Swen Schuyler; their son 
John, m. Catharine Van Rensselaer, daughter of 
General Robert Van Rensselaer. 

2d generation : 

Johannes, youngest son of Philip Schuyler, m. 
Elizabeth Staats, and had four children. He sur- 
vived all his brothers and his own sons. Philip was 
killed by the Indians at Saratoga, Nov. 1745. 

3d generation : 

John, Jr., died 1 741 ; Margaret m. her cousin Philip, 
son of Colonel Peter Schuyler, and was known as the 
" American lady ;" Catharine, m. Cornelius Cuyler, 
mayor of Albany. 

1st generation : 

David Peter Schuyler, the second son of Peter, 
came from Holland either with his brother Philip or 
soon after. In Oct. 1658, he, m. Catalyn Ver-Planck, 
daughter of Abraham, son of Isaac Ver-Planck. He 
died Feb. 9, 1690, on a day of great excitement 
caused by the burning of Schenectady, His wife 
Catalyn died Oct. 8, 1708. In 1660 David was a 
resident of Beverwyck (Albany). Dec. 22d, of that 
year he bought a lot on State street of Anneke 
Jans Bogardus, on which he built a house. Oct. 6, 
1673, he was appointed magistrate of Albany; the 
same year he was made a justice of the peace by 



7 6 

Governor Dongan. In 1686 again made alderman. 
He then moved to a larger house at the corner of 
Broadway and Steuben street. His garden, planted 
with flowers and shrubs, ran to the banks of the 
Hudson river, and is now covered by the beautiful, 
new railroad depot of the New York Central and 
Hudson River roads. He was elected by the people 
as alderman for three successive years ; was mem- 
ber of the committee and in perfect accord with his 
nephew Peter Schuyler, Albany's first mayor. He 
was a successful business man and accumulated great 
wealth. His relations with his brother Philip were 
very intimate and confidential. They shared in the 
same enterprises and were sureties for each other in 
business transactions. Their children were named 
for each other and they stood sponsors for each 
other's children. (From Colonial New York). 

Their own middle names of Pieterse showing, as 
was the custom of the day, that that was the name 
of their father. Each had a daughter Gertrude 
named for their mother; each named a son Peter for 
their father ; each had a daughter named, one Catalyn 
and the other Margaret, for their wives, and Maria 
and Alyda for their wives' mothers. 

David Schuyler executed his will May 21, 1688. 
To his eldest son Peter he gave his house and lot 
on the hill, presumably the house on State street, just 
above Pearl street, on the south side. To his wife 
the mansion on the corner of Broadway and Steuben, 
to each of his married and unmarried children thirty 
pounds ; the balance of the estate in trust to his wife, 
to be equally divided after her death among his eight 
children. 

Philip Peter Schuyler and his sons were buyers 



77 

and sellers of land, but David Peter and his sons had 
little to do with land transactions. Myndert had a 
share in 10,000 acres on Schoharie Creek and a share 
of 500 acres on the upper waters of the Normanskill. 
Myndert was buried in the church October 21, 1755, 
having survived all his brothers and all the sons of 
his Uncle Philip. He was the last of the second 
generation of the American Schuylers. 

The Eight Children of David Peter Schuyler 
and Catalyn Ver Planck Were : 

Peter, b. April 18, 1659, m. Alyda Van Sclichten- 
hurst, d. 1696. 

Gertrude, b. Sept. 19, 1691, m. William C. Groes- 
beck. 

Abraham, b. Aug. 16, 1663, m. Gertrude Ten 
Broeck, d. July 9, 1726. 

Maria, b. Sept. 29, 1666, m. 1689, Dr. Henry Van 
Dyck. 

David, b. June 11, 1669, m. 1694, Elsie Rutgers, 
d. 1715. 

Myndert, b. Jan. 16, 1672, m. Rachel Cuyler, d. 
Oct. 1755. 

Jacob, b. June 14, 1675, m. 1st Catalyn, 2d Su- 
sanne Wendell, sister, d. 1707. 

Catalyn, b. Jan. 14, 1678, m. 1st Johannes Abeel, 
2d Rutger Bleeker, d. 171 2. 

Catalyn Ver Planck, our first American grand- 
mother, was the daughter of Abraham, son of Isaac 
Ver Planck, who came to America in 1638 ; he mar- 
ried his wife, Maria Vigne, before he left Holland. 
They had three children born in Holland and six 
after reaching New Amsterdam. His daughter Cata 
lyn married in 1657, David Peter Schuyler; his eldest 



78 

son Julian served for two years as clerk to Allard 
Anthony, merchant, of N. Y., and another two years 
with Peter, son of Cornelis Vanderveen, whose widow, 
Elsie Tymens, married Jacob Lesler. Julian Ver 
Planck began business for himself about 1661 ; was 
alderman from 1677 to 1679, and died in 1683 ; he 
married Hendricka Wessels. His eldest son Samuel, 
married Ariantje Bayard, daughter of Balthazar Bay- 
ard and Maritje Lockerman ; his second son Jacobus 
married 1691, Margaret, daughter of Philip Schuyler 
and Margaret Von Sclichtenhurst. He died in 1700, 
leaving one son, Philip Ver Planck, who married 
Gertrude, only daughter of John, eldest son of 
Stephen and Gertrude Schuyler Von Cortland. 
Margaret Schuyler Ver Planck married November 
21, 1 701, John Collins; she died May 16, 1708. 
Oloff Van Cortland, the father of Stephen Van Cort- 
land, came to New Amsterdam in 1637 ; in 1642, 
February 26, he married Annetje Lockerman, sister 
of Govert Lockerman ; both became men of worth 
and consideration, and amassed great wealth. Peter 
Schuyler, the eldest son of David Peter Schuyler and 
Catalyn Ver Planck, was born April 18, 1659, and 
died March 7, 1696. He was a merchant in Albany, 
and in 1685, was appointed Judge of Oyer and 
Terminer ; he married Alyda Von Sclichtenhurst, 
daughter of Gerrit Von Sclichtenhurst, and a niece 
of his Uncle Philip's wife. She was then a widow, 
her first husband, Gerrit Goosen Von Schaick, hav- 
ing died November 11, 1679. The date of her mar- 
riage with Peter Schuyler is not known, as their first 
child, Johannes, was born in 1684; they were likely 
married in 1680 or 1681. Peter Schuyler died sud- 
denly March 7, 1696, leaving no will. His widow 



79 

applied to the court in the May following to have 
Abraham and David Schuyler, his brothers, appointed 
guardians to her children during their minority. 
The eldest son David, born 1682, died young, and 
the fourth son was given the name of David, that of 
Peter Schuyler's father ; this David was born Decem- 
ber 26, 1688. The birth of the first son, David, 
which is not in the list of the children's birth, would 
put this marriage back to 1680 or 1681. The second 
son was named Gerrit, for his wife's father. Peter 
Schuyler and his brothers were much employed in 
the public service. His brother Abraham was for 
many years, one of the most prominent men in 
Albany ; he was much respected by the Indians, with 
whose language he was familiar. He accompanied 
Colonel Peter Schuyler and the five Indian chiefs to 
England as their interpreter. David, son of David 
Schuyler, was a man of better education and greater 
abilities than the average man ; he was often em- 
ployed in the public service ; was alderman and jus- 
tice of the peace in his native city of Albany for 
several successive years. In 1705 he was sheriff of 
the county, and the next year was appointed mayor 
of the city; the highest position of the province would 
have been within his reach had his life been pro- 
longed, but he died at the age of forty-six, Decem- 
ber 16, 1715. 

Civil government had been established in the New 
Netherlands by the Dutch in 1621. It consisted of 
a director-general or governor and a council, who 
exercised executive, legislative and judicial powers. 
The Dutch Roman laws and the ordinances enacted 
by them from time to time constituted the law of the 
country, and appeals from the judgment of the court 



8o 

of the director and council lay to the States General, 
or Court of Holland. In later years some slight 
concessions to the people were granted. The city of 
New Amsterdam was incorporated in 1653, and local 
or imperial courts were established in various towns 
throughout the country. A convention of delegates 
at New Amsterdam in 1653 demanded a representa- 
tive form of government and some share by the 
people in the enactment of the laws, but this was 
peremptorily refused. The council acted not only 
as the executive council, but a supreme court with 
appellate jurisdiction. Appeals lay to them from 
the inferior courts. The members could not be sued 
before, and were not amenable to, the lower courts. 
The governor, however, could dismiss them at his 
pleasure. In one instance, it is said, he caused a file 
of soldiers to eject from the council chamber the 
vice-director or deputy governor for opposition to 
his will, and it is alleged he caned with his own hand 
another member. Imagine Governor Odell of New 
York, or Governor Yates of Illinois, attempting a 
thing of that kind. But that was in "the good old 
times" we hear vaunted so much. Among the 
executive officers were the receiver-general, comp- 
troller, the provincial secretaries, and surveyor- 
general, besides the " Schout Fiscal," who acted in 
the double capacity of attorney-general and sheriff. 
He arrested, examined and afterwards prosecuted 
all law-breakers. If there was suspicion, but no 
direct evidence of guilt, the prisoner was subjected 
to torture in the presence of sheriff and magistrates ; 
but in case he did not confess he could not again be 
tortured. 

The schout fiscal had a voice in the council, 



8i 

except when officiating as prosecuting officer. The 
director-general and council were the guardians of 
orphans. The office of burgomaster came into 
existence in Holland in the fourteenth century. In 
New Amsterdam they succeeded the " Nine Men," 
and were appointed by the director-general and 
council. By law they were the chief rulers of the 
city. Without their consent no woman or minor 
could execute any legal instrument. They held in 
trust all the city property ; they were keepers of the 
city seal — were, in fine, the "Fathers of the City." 
They entered upon the duties of their office on the 
2d of February of each year. Each burgomaster 
attended daily in rotation during three months, at 
the city hall, for the dispatch of public business. In 
many particulars the officiating burgomaster resem- 
bled somewhat our mayor. One burgomaster retired 
annually from office, and then became city treasurer 
for the next year. 

It was in 1629 that the power of patroons was 
established. A charter was granted to any individual 
who should undertake to plant a colony of fifty per- 
sons over fifteen years of age, giving them the rank 
and power of patroon. Several of the directors of 
the company availed themselves of this privilege and 
became possessed of large tracts of country over 
which their authority was almost feudal. Among 
the counselors I find the name of Nicassius De Sille 
continually from 1653 till 1664, when the English 
took possession. Walburgh De Sille, daughter of 
Nicassius De Sille, married William Bogardus, son 
of Everard Bogardus, the first established minister 
in New Amsterdam. This marriage I find in old 
New York records. 



82 

Among the burgomasters are, in 1641, Abraham 
Ver Plank ; in 1645, Oloff Stevenson Von Cortland, 
meaning, I suppose, Oloff, son of Stephen Von Cort- 
land ; his name again in 1649 and 1650; in 1647, 
Gevert Lockerman, and the same in 1649, l ^S°- 
Oloff Von Cortland, son of Stephen, occurs again in 
1655, 1656, 1658, 1659, 1660, 1662 and 1663. Grand- 
father Oloff must by that time have become quite a 
pompous old fellow. 

In 1673, 1674, come Johannes Van Brugh, who 
married Catharine Roeloff, and Evert Wendell, 
whose name I have run across in some of the mar- 
riages. At a convention held in the city hall, New 
Amsterdam, April 10, 1664, Gerritt Von Schlichten- 
hurst was one of the delegates ; also Elbert Elbert- 
son, who married Sara Roeloff, widow of Dr. Hans 
Kierstede. It was at her wedding to Dr. Hans that 
Dominie Bogardus took advantage of the tipsiness 
of his guests to get them to subscribe so freely for 
the new Dutch church that when they became sober 
on the following day they were appalled at the muni- 
ficence of their subscriptions, but the dominie would 
not let them off. Jacob Lesler was the tenth gov- 
ernor under the English rule, his administration 
beginning June 8, 1689. He was executed for high 
treason in May, 1691. 

The title of this officer was Captain-General and 
Governor-in-Chief in and over the Province of New 
York and the Territories depending thereon in 
America. He was also Vice- Admiral of New York 
and Connecticut and Keeper of the Great Seal of the 
Province. His commission was under the Sign 
Manual and Great Seal of the Realm and he held 
his office during his pleasure. Among other things 



8 3 

he was empowered to grant marriage licenses and to 
probate wills, to license schoolmasters and printers 
and call out the militia, erect forts and cities and 
grant patents for lands, ports and harbors. His sal- 
ary at the time of the revolution was 2COO, pounds 
sterling and four hundred pounds additional for fuel 
and candles. He had besides this, fees in patents, 
etc., which must have added a tidy sum to his income. 

In May, 1709, Peter Schuyler was sworn in again 
as President of the Council; elected again in 1 7 1 9. 
June 3, 1757, James De Lancy was lieutenan-gov- 
ernor. A counsellor's title was " The Honorable;" 
he was empowered to act as justice of the peace in 
any country within the province ; he held his office 
during pleasure and served without salary ; his posi- 
tion was such that he was enabled to secure for him- 
self, his family and friends, large grants of land, 
which indemnified him for whatever time and labor 
he otherwise lost. Stephen Van Cortland and Peter 
Schuyler are names several times repeated among the 
members of the council from 1692 to 1721, when the 
name of Peter Schuyler was replaced by that of Cad- 
walder Colden. 

From 1725, when Philip Livingston was elected to 
succeed Gerard Beekman, whose name first appears 
in 1690, we find his name continually until 1750, 
when Livingston, deceased, was succeeded by James 
Alexander. In 1726 Archibald Kennedy succeeded 
Bryerly till 1761, when Kennedy resigned. In 1729 

James De Lancy succeeded B e, deceased, and 

served continually till July 1760, when he died. 
Oliver De Lancy, elected the same year, served con- 
tinually till 1776. James De Lancy was lieutenant- 
governor from October, 1753, to July, 1760. I could 



8 4 

fill a dozen pages with the offices of trust and honor 
held by different members of the Schuyler family in 
the days of the colonies, those of the name of 
Schuyler and the sons and grandsons and husbands 
of the Schuyler daughters, but what I have already 
quoted is, I think, sufficient to make good their claim 
of being one of the greatest factors in the public life 
of the provinces, a part of the history, one may say. 

Among the commissioners for Indian affairs were, 
prominent, Peter Schuyler, son of Philip Schuyler, 
and his brother John ; Peter Schuyler, son of David 
Schuyler, and his brothers Abraham and Myndert ; 
Peter Von Brugh and Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, both 
grandsons of a Schuyler. Philip Schuyler, 2d, 
John Schuyler and Myndert Schuyler, 2d, bringing 
it down to 1755, when Sir William Johnson became 
superintendent of Indian affairs. 

The Court of Oyer and Terminer consisted of the 
judge, assisted by four justices of the peace. It had 
jurisdiction over all criminal, appellate or civil cases. 
It held jurisdiction over the other courts in the county, 
subject to the appeal to the king. Among these 
judges we find the Schuylers. Among the mayors 
of Albany I find the first mayor, 1686, was Peter 
Schuyler ; he was the son of the first Philip Peter 
Schuyler; in 1703 Johannes Schuyler, a grandson of 
the first Philip; in 1706 David Schuyler, son of 
David Peter Schuyler the first; in 1 7 19 there is 
Myndert Schuyler, a brother of David the 2d, son of 
David Peter Schuyler. He was the Myndert who out- 
lived all his own brothers and all his Uncle Philip's 
sons. In 1 741 John Schuyler, son of Johannes 
1st. Myndert Schuyler served again in 1723 — a 
pretty good showing, six members of one family 



85 

serving their native city as mayors. Besides, numer- 
ous sons and grandsons of the Schuyler daughters 
are in the list of Albany's mayors — Livingston, Von 
Brugh, De Peyster, Ten Broeck, Ten Eyckand Abeel. 

2d generation : 

Myndert Schuyler, son of David Peter, was elected 
to the assembly in 1701, and re-elected for four years 
following. Twenty years of his life were spent in 
the service of the province. In 1 719 he was appointed 
mayor of Albany and served two years ; was reap- 
pointed by Governor Burnet and served another two 
years ; was a captain in the militia, and a colonel in 
1755. Myndert Schuyler married, October 26, 1693, 
Rachel Cuyler. The names of Philip and Peter 
Schuyler are in the lists of members of assembly 
nearly every year down to 1836. From 1725 there 
are John and Jeremiah, John B. and John C, Peter 
and Peter S., continually from 1784 to 1820; then 
Nicholas, Philip and Stephen, Philip J. and Philip P., 
from Rensselaer, Saratoga, Albany, Herkimer, and 
Dutchess counties. 

Alida Von Sclichtenhurst, who married Peter 
David Schuyler, was the daughter of Gerrit Von 
Sclichtenhurst, son of the director, an officer of the 
army, and a magistrate of the colony for several 
years. He was the brother of Philip Schuyler's wife, 
and came from Holland with his father's family in 
1647. He had a wife and three children before 
leaving Holland. His daughter Alyda married, first, 
Gerrit Goosen Von Shaick ; second, Peter Davidse 
Schuyler, the eldest son of David Schuyler the 1st. 
In 1672 Gerrit Von Sclichtenhurst was a magistrate 
of Schenectady, but the next year was again in 



86 

Albany. He died in 1684, at Kingston, leaving one 
son and five daughters. The son died unmarried. 

The Children of Peter David Schuyler and 
Alyda Von Sclichtenhurst Are : 

3d generation : 

A son David, who died young. 

3d generation : 

Gerrit, m., 1703, to Aggie De Groot. 

Johannes, b. 1684, d. 1740; left no children. 

Catharine, b. 1686, m. Jacob Bogart. 

David Peter, b. Dec. 26, 1688, m. 1st Anna Bratt, 
2d wife unknown. 

Alida, b. 1693, died young. 

Philip Peter, b. 1694, m. Sara Roosevelt of N. Y., 
1718. 

Peter P., b. 1696, lived in Albany, d. 1764. 

David Schuyler died before June, 1764; his will 
was proved in Albany, April, 1 764. 

Peter also died before 1 764. 

3d generation : 

David Schuyler was twice married ; his first wife, 
Anna Bratt, bore him two children, Alida and Peter 
D. ; his second wife, name unknown, nine children. 

In May, 1754, David Schuyler 2d and his son Peter 
2d bought of the Mohawk Indians 43,000 acres of land 
on the west side of Schuyler's Lake, for which they 
procured a patent, in company with a few others, one 
of these being David Schuyler's brother, Peter P. 
Schuyler. The land was near what is now known as 
Richfields Springs. David Schuyler 2d was a man 



8; 

of extensive business and large property. In his 
will he speaks of land, mines and minerals at Canajo- 
harie and lands on Schuyler Lake, his estates in 
Albany and New York and in the colonies of Rens- 
selaerwick and Surinam. His will is dated April 3, 
1759, in which he names his oldest son Peter and his 
nine children by his second wife. He appointed 
seven executors, with Sir William Johnson at the 
head. When the will was proved, in 1764, all the 
executors declined to act. His eldest son Peter 
was dead, and Johannes Schuyler, being the eldest 
living son, was appointed administrator. Peter 
Schuyler secured two shares or four thousand acres 
in the land patent at Schuyler Lake, his Uncle Peter 
P. Schuyler, of Albany, having transferred to him his 
allotment, according to agreement before the patent 
was issued. Peter D. Schuyler was an active business 
man, but died in middle life before his plans and 
business schemes were fully developed. 

The house on State street, Albany, just above 
Pearl street, on the south side, was the house built 
and owned by the 1st David Peter Schuyler, which 
in his will he gave to his son Peter in 1668, he having 
then removed to his mansion on Broadway. In this 
home was born our great-grandfather David Schuyler, 
the eldest son of Peter Schuyler. On the 26th of 
December, 1688, his grandfather, being then one of 
the " City Fathers," in a legal paper of that time 
is termed the " Honorable David Pieterse Schuyler." 
In 1689 he was a member of the convention that 
assumed the government of the city, and put his 
name to the protest against the pretenses of Jacob 
Lesler, January 13, 1690. He died on the day of the 
burning of Schenectady, February 9, 1690. He was 



88 

a successful business man, and was a partner with 
Livingston, Ten Broeck, Bleeker and others in the 
purchase of Saratoga. The old documentary his- 
tories of New York are full of the names of the 
Schuylers. 

February 13, 1690, Ensign Abraham Schuyler went 
out with eight or nine Christians to join a party 
against the French at Schenectady, who were said to 
be marching on to Albany. February 18th it was 
commanded to pull down and remove several houses 
near the city which stood extremely dangerous ; and, 
as the enemy was daily expected, it was ordered the 
houses should be removed. Among them the house 
of Brant Albertus Bradt, who may have been the 
father of the Anna Bradt married to David Schuyler 
some thirty years later. The Albertus signifying 
Barent, son of Albert. There were other houses 
to be removed ; and that they might be removed with 
as little damage to the owner, Peter Winne, Peter 
Bogardus, William Claus Groesback, Harmon Ganse- 
voort, Duke Bensing and Jan Cornelis Vischer were 
appointed and authorized to agree with the owners 
and appraise the same, which appraisement was to be 
paid by the public. And in order that the same may 
be done with all speed, the said persons are author- 
ized to cause all fences and trees to be removed, and 
warn the owners thereof to do it, or have it done, 
with all expedition ; and this shall be sufficient war- 
rant. The said six men are also authorized to give 
their report whether any other houses than those 
first mentioned oucrht to be removed in these danger- 
ous times. That order may be taken thereon, signed, 
Peter Schuyler, mayor; Johannes Bleeker, John 
Wendell, Albert Bryckman, Claus Ripse and two 



8 9 

others. On the 25th of February Ensign Abraham 
Schuyler is designated as Lieutenant Abraham Schuy- 
ler ; on March 31st we fined him dubbed Captain 
Abraham Schuyler. Promotions, it seems, came 
thick and fast in those bloody days, and the Schuylers 
were always at the front. Among the nine men who 
volunteered to go into the Indian country to recon- 
noiter was Arent Schuyler, a son of Philip Schuyler, 
and a cousin of Abraham, who was David's son. The 
name of Daniel Bradt was also among the nine. 
They were to proceed to Crown Point where they 
were to remain for further orders; but if they found 
any fitter place which would be more secure, they 
were empowered to go thither with the advice, after 
due consultation, of Dirk Albertson Bradt, on the 
condition that they sent out spies daily toward 
Crown Point. They were also to communicate daily 
with Captain Abraham Schuyler and his people, 
keeping mutually informed of all notable occurrences. 

All persons who had fences near the town were 
ordered to remove them sixty paces from the 
stockades. The houses were to be taken down 
and erected on vacant lots inside the stockades ; one 
house, being old and decayed, was only to be pulled 
down. The gate by Harmon Gansevoort's was to 
be forthwith repaired. 

Until the close of the 18th century the Schuyler 
family had no competitor in influence and the friend- 
ship of the Indians, except, in the latter part, that of 
Sir William Johnson. John, the youngest son of 
Philip, was an active young man at the time ; brave, 
and full of military aspirations. He was the grand- 
father of General Philip Schuyler. These brothers 
were engaged continually in public life. It was in 



90 

1710 that Major Peter Schuyler went to England 
with the five Indian chiefs ; he was accompanied, as 
I have before stated, by the two sons of David Peter 
Schuyler. Captain John Schuyler married Elizabeth 
Staats ; she was the widow of John Wendell. He 
was Indian commissioner for many years ; was chosen 
to a seat in the Colonial assembly in 1705 and held 
that position till 1 7 1 3. From that time till the war 
for independence the name of Schuyler appears 
almost continually among those of the representatives 
of the people in the legislature of the province of 
New York. He died in 1747, and was buried in 
the Dutch church at Albany. His mother outlived 
her husband Philip Schuyler for many years, she 
dying in 1689. In 1669 she advanced the money from 
her own private purse to pay the troops of Albany. 
Her son Peter had an almost unbounded control 
over the Mohawk Indians; they spoke of him affec- 
tionately as "Quidor." John, the son of John, born in 
1697, married his cousin Cornelia, youngest child of 
Stephen Van Cortland of New York. He died in 
1 74 1, six years before his father's death, and was 
buried at the family cemetery at the " Flatts" near 
Watervliet. Philip, the eldest son, afterward major- 
general, being then only eight years old, having 
been born November 20, 1733. His youth was spent 
under the care of his Aunt Margaret, who had mar- 
ried her cousin Colonel Philip Schuyler, and lived at 
the " Flatts." The story of this lady's life, as written 
by Mrs. Grant, is very interesting reading. The 
mansion at the " Flatts, " built by the first Philip, was 
considered a very elegant residence, and, in its day, 
very many notable people were entertained there. 
The Van Cortland family was numbered among the 
most aristocratic and opulent in the province. 



9i 

In 1 701 the commissioners sent Johannes Bleeker, 
Jr., and David Schuyler to Onondaga to notify the 
five nations of the coming compaign. On the 14th 
of June, 1 701, the Seneca sachems having arrived, a 
meeting was held. This David was a son of David 
Peter Schuyler, first cousin of Colonel Peter Schuyler ; 
he was afterward mayor of Albany. 

In 1820 a catalogue of records was submitted to 
the legislature by John Van Ness, secretary of state, 
in three parts: First, Dutch Colonial, from 1630 to 
1664; second, English Colonial, from 1664 to 1776 ; 
third, State Records, from 1776 to 1820. The col- 
lection of records relative to Indian affairs were not 
to be found, and it is supposed they were carried to 
Canada by Sir John Johnson or his agents, and from 
there shipped to England. 

I have found these records in the State Library at 
Albany a great help to me in my work ; I have found 
much of the same kind, but not to as great an extent, 
in the Newberry Library in Chicago, Illinois, and 
much among old papers and documents of family 
history. In tracing the line of the Schuylers I have 
had no intention of giving a consecutive line of 
descent except in our own family line, only to show 
their connection by marriage with all the important 
families of the provinces, whose numerous descend- 
ants now populate nearly every State of the Union. 
I have shown the connection with the Van Sclichten- 
hursts and Ver Planks. The two young men Philip 
and David first came to America as intimate friends 
of the Van Rensselaers, with whom they soon became 
connected by marriage. Catharine Van Rensselaer, 
the wife of Philip Schuyler, was the daughter of 
Colonel John Van Rensselaer, son of Hendrick, 



grandson of Killion Van Rensselaer, the first Patroon. 
He married Engeltie Livingston. The intermarriages 
of the Schuylers, Van Cortlands, Livingstons and 
Van Brughs had established a numerous relationship. 

In New York it had become the custom to send 
the young girls of the family at least once a year to 
visit their relatives in the city to acquire the polish 
of the fashionable society which moved about the 
presence of the royal governors at their court assem- 
blies. The opportunity for the display of their social 
gifts and manners at Albany was only second to that 
of New York city itself. Boston was too far away 
to be taken into account in the matter of fashionable 
assemblies by the belles and beaux of those days. 

In 1756 Peter Schuyler, nephew of Peter, the 
colonel, and grandson of Philip, being the son of 
Arent Schuyler, born 1710, died 1762, was captured 
by the Indians under Montcalm. He was left an 
ample estate by his father and had been commis- 
sioned colonel September 7, 1746. He, with his 
regiment, was taken to Montreal, then to Quebec, 
where he provisioned his captive regiment out of his 
own private purse for two months, until he was 
finally released and returned to the States. 

Arent Schuyler's wife was Jannecke Teller, the 
daughter of William Teller of Albany, who had 
come from Holland in 1639, being employed by the 
Dutch West India Company. Schuyler's wife Jan- 
necke died in 1700, and in 1703 he married Swantie 
Dyckhouse, who bore him five children, he having 
six by his first wife. P"or his third wife he married 
Maria, daughter of Robert Walter and granddaughter 
of Jacob Lesler, with whom his grandfather, the old 
director, had such a fierce quarrel. After the death 



93 

of Arent Schuyler his widow Mary Walter married, 
1736, Archibald Kennedy, receiver-general and col- 
lector of customs. He later became Earl of Cassiles. 

Two daughters of Killion Van Rensselaer, Anna 
and Gertrude, married brothers, sons of Arent Schuy- 
ler. Stephen, the second son of Killion Van Rens- 
selar, in 1745, succeeded his brother as lord of the 
manor ; he left two sons and a daughter who mar- 
ried General Abraham Ten Broeck. Stephen, the 
eldest son, was a boy of five years. John died 
unmarried ; Stephen married Catharine Livingston 
in January, 1764. Stephen, the heir, married Mar- 
garet, the daughter of General Fhilip Schuyler ; he 
was the sixth lord of the manor and the eighth 
patroon, and the last ; the manor then containing 
750,000 acres. 

Robert Livingston, by his marriage with Alyda 
Schuyler, formed a connection with several of the 
leading families of Albany and New York. He was 
the son of Scotch parents who had long lived in Hol- 
land, having been banished to Rotterdam. Philip, 
the second lord of the manor, married Catharine Von 
Brugh. In 1 725 he was appointed by Governor Bur- 
nett to the council, and was in public life from early 
manhood until his death in 1750. He left five sons. 

Sarah Von Brugh Livingston, daughter of Colonel 
William Livingston, married John Jay, prominent in 
revolutionary times. John Jay was a descendant 
of the French Protestant emigrants who came to 
America in consequence of the revocation of the 
edict of Nantes in 1685. Jay was a member of con- 
gress, ambassador to a foreign land, chief justice of 
the American States and governor of the State of 
New York. Philip Livingston became the second 



94 

lord of the manor ; notwithstanding his Scottish 
father, he was named after the Dutch fashion, Philip, 
for the father of Alyda Schuyler, his mother. He 
married Catharine Von Brugh of Albany, and during 
the latter part of his life entertained with great mag- 
nificence at their residence in New York city, Albany, 
and the Manor House. Their eldest daughter, 
Sara, married William Alexander, Lord Sterling ; 
his son Robert became the third and last lord of the 
manor. Their son, Peter Yon Brugh Livingston, 
married the sister of Lord Sterling. Another son 
was Philip Livingston, who signed the Declaration 
of Independence; this son Philip, was born January, 
1716, died 1778. There was a son William born in 
1723 ; a son Walter who married Cornelia Schuyler. 
Janet, the daughter of Robert, a grandson of the 
patroon, married Colonel Richard Montgomery. 
Robert, son of the third Robert, was a graduate of 
Columbia college, admitted to the bar in 1773, and 
was one of the five to draft the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence ; in 1 y/y he was appointed the first chancel- 
lor of New York, which office he held till 1801. He 
administered the oath of office to George Washing- 
ton on his inauguration, as the first President of the 
United States. 

David Peter Schuyler, by his marriage with Anna 
Bratt in 1720, had but two children, Alyda, born 
1 721, who died young, and Peter D., born in 1723, 
who married Elizabeth Barbara Herkimer; he died 
in 1 763, leaving five children. 

David Schuyler, by his second marriage, had nine 
children, John, Adoniah, David, Philip, Jacob, Anna, 
Margaret, Alyda, Catherine. 

Peter D. Schuyler, by his marriage with Elizabeth 



95 

Barbara Herkimer, allied himself to the most influen- 
tial family in the Mohawk Valley. His wife was the 
eldest daughter of John Jost Herkimer, one of the 
patentees of the Burnetts-field tract, a man of wealth 
and influence, a leader among his people for many 
years. She was the eldest of eight daughters, sisters of 
General Nicholas Herkimer of Revolutionary fame. 
Schuyler's marriage is recorded in the Reformed 
Dutch Church of Albany, where the first years of 
their wedded life were passed ; later when he, with 
his father and Uncle Peter, made the great purchase 
of land at Schuyler Lake, they may have lived there. 
He was largely interested in lands and mining, but 
as he died when not quite forty, his business schemes 
were not fully developed. Whether his wife re- 
mained at the home at Schuyler Lake or returned to 
her father's home at Fort Herkimer is a matter of 
conjecture ; she was certainly left with ample means 
as is testified by the wills of both her husband and 
his father, David Schuyler, of Albany, as I have seen 
both these wills. Peter Schuyler and his father died 
about the same time, the younger man, Peter, preced- 
ing the father so that the estates of both were settled 
up by the eldest brother, John Schuyler. Fourteen 
years later we find them living near Schuyler Lake, 
as Arnold, then on his march to the relief of Fort 
Stanwix, arrested one Hon Yost Schuyler, " a man of 
wealth and standing," who, like some of his neigh- 
bors, was accused of having tory proclivities. Arnold 
wanted a messenger to send to St. Leger an exag- 
gerated account of the army marching to Ganse- 
voort's relief, so promised young Schuyler his life, 
and his fortune secured, if he would undertake the 
mission, holding his young brother, Nicholas, a boy 



9 6 

of seventeen, as hostage till his return. How well 
the mission was accomplished, and the part it played 
in the destinies of the struggling nation, is a story 
often told. Though the effect of the retreat of St. 
Leger upon the history of our nation has passed into 
history, it was not at that time fully appreciated. 
For some unknown reason the part played by Schuy- 
ler in the matter, has been much belittled, but when 
men like General Herkimer and General Schuyler 
can be accused of cowardice and timidity, not even 
our great Washington escaping, what can we expect 
for lesser lights ? 

The picture of the poor, widowed mother and her 
young son, a mere boy, pleading for the life of the 
brother, from Arnold, himself a traitor in heart when 
the price reached his views, has ever to me seemed very 
pathetic. This poor mother, deprived of her counselor 
and protector, her husband dead, her old father gone 
and the brother too, General Nicholas Herkimer, all 
who might have stood by her in her hour of need ; all 
she could do was to throw herself upon the mercy 
of Arnold, and trembling with fear and a breaking 
heart await the return of her boy. The Indians were 
known to be treacherous and every scalp brought 
them eight dollars in English gold, and in case his 
life was sacrificed, cutting off his return, then the life 
of her other boy was the forfeit; but though the hours 
must have seemed like weeks, the Father of the widow 
and the orphan looking pityingly down, returned him 
to her arms and the youth held in durance was once 
more set free. This story of the messenger sent by 
General Arnold I find in the Pictorial History of 
American Revolution, by Robert Shaw, published in 

1845- 



97 

The Children of Peter D. Schuyler and Eliza- 
beth Barbara Herkimer were : 
5th generation : 

Peter, born 1745, m. Catherine Herkimer, daughter 
of Henry Herkimer. 

John Jost (Hon Yost) died 1810. 

Nicholas, b. 1760, his son Nicholas, b. 1796. 

Katharine Elizabeth, b. 1 75 1 , m. Joseph Herkimer, 
and another daughter supposed to be named Anna, 
for the mother of Peter D. Schuyler, which was the 
custom of the day, nothing is known of her or her 
descendants. 

5th generation : 

Peter m. to Catherine Herkimer, had children. 

6th generation : 

Peter, m. Sophia Cook, their children. 

7th generation ; 

Sophia, Martha, Electra, Juliette, John m. Mary 
McCord. 

5th generation : 

Abraham 3d m. Sarah Sutherland, Joseph 4th m. 
Margaret McCord, Elizabeth m. DuColon, Nancy m. 
Mires, Margaret m. Solomon Mayor, Simeon 5th 
m. Sarah Evans. 

5th generation : 

Nicholas Schuyler's children were : Nicholas 1st, 
b. 1796, Peter 2d, Henry 3d and George 4th. 



98 

6th generation : 

Nicholas' son Nicholas m. Lydia Green, Felix 
Schuyler b. 1827, m. Francis Casler. 

5th generation : 

Katharine Elizabeth Schuyler and Joseph Her- 
kimer's children were: Mary b. 1778. m. William 
Tygert, died 1798; Katharine b. October, 1780, m. 
1st Elijah Strong, 2d Samuel Lord, she died in 
1847; Nancy b. 1784, m. James Campbell, d. 1851, 
had no children; Dorothy (Dolly) b. 1788, m. James 
Fox, d. 1867. 

6th generation : 

Katharine Herkimer and Elijah Strong had 
children : John, b. Aug. 7, 1799, m. Katherine Crist- 
man, March, 1820, and d. July, 1869 ; Henry, b. March, 
i8oi r m. Mary Cristman, d. March, 1880; George b. 
Jan. 7th, 1803, m. Julia Anne Dingman, d. 1839; 
Mary Catharine, b. 1805, m - Phineas Golden, d. 1862 ; 
Elijah Herkimer, b. 181 1, m. Julia M'Gee, d. 1893; 
Catherine Herkimer married for her second husband 
Samuel Lord, their children Nancy b. 1823, m. James 
Waldron, d. 1888 ; Samuel, b. 1825, m. Katherine 
Harwick, d. July, 1887. 

Elijah Strong, who married Katherine Herkimer, 
was a lineal descendant of Elder John Strong, of 
Northampton, Mass., who came, with his young wife 
Mary and his sister Elinor, from Taunton, England, 
in 1630, on board the good ship Mary and John, 
Capt. Squeb. There were 149 other passengers on 
board. They landed at Nantasket and called their 
new home Dorchester, after the old home from which 
so many of them had departed. The father of John 
Strong, the first pioneer, was Richard Strong, born 
in Caernarvon, Wales, 1651, his grandmother was an 



99 

heiress of the house of Griffith, descended from 
Lewellyn, the last king of Wales, who was beheaded 
by the English in 1282. In 1551 his father's family 
had returned to England, living there until his death 
in 1613. 

The family multiplied greatly in America, the first, 
Elder John, leaving at his death 160 descendants, he 
living to be nearly ninety years old. His sons, and 
grandsons and great-grandsons have filled many 
places of office and honor. Their names are among 
judges and jurists, doctors of law and divinity, pro- 
fessors of colleges, mayors of cities and army officers 
— all tracing back their lineage to the old Massa- 
chusetts elder and his pretty Welsh grandmother. 
There was a crest and a motto in the olden days. The 
motto is " Tentenda est via," and in its various inter- 
pretations this is as good as any : " Try, try again," 
" Never give up the ship," "The best is none too 
good," "Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth 
doing well." The crest I will not attempt to describe. 

The family of Tygerts is mentioned often in the 
early history of the Mohawk valley, sometimes spelled 
Tygert, sometimes Dygert. The two wives of 
Nicholas Herkimer, the General, were Tygerts, and 
the father and brother were faithful patriots. A 
sister of General Herkimer married a Dygert, but if 
these families were connected with each other, I do 
not know. The name of Campbell could hardly 
have been of German origin, but they were among 
the early settlers of the German Flatts. The Foxes 
came with the Palatines, and they are among the 
patentees of the Burnett's Field tract. James Fox, 
who married Dorothy Herkimer, was born March, 
1784, and was a descendant of this family. His 

L.cfC. 



IOO 

father was Frederick Fox. His sister Anna Eliza- 
beth married John Shoemaker, son of Johannes 
Shoemaker. John Shoemaker died March, 185 1 ; 
Johannes Shoemaker died 1805. Mrs. Emma 
Ostrander, of Mohawk, is a granddaughter of John 
and Elizabeth Shoemaker. 

James Fox and Dorothy Herkimer's children were : 
James Henry, born December 5th, 1808, died 1867 ; 
Mary Catharine, born January 25, 181 1, married 
Patrick Fox, died April, 1890; John Andrew, born 
March 12, 1815, married Janett Hubbell ; Matthew 
Herkimer, born April 22, 181 7, married Eliza Edick ; 
Jacob William, born March 5, 1827, died 1866; 
Patrick Fox, husband of Mary Catharine Fox, born 
June, 181 2, died July 24, 1891; Eliza Edick, wife of 
Matthew Fox, died 189- ; Jeremiah Fox, born Febru- 
ary, 1813, married Dencie Clarke, died January, 1877. 
The wife of James Henry Fox was Sylvia Sherwood. 

Mary Herkimer, daughter of Joseph and Katherine 
Herkimer, married William Tygert. She died in 
1798, leaving one daughter Margaret, who married, 
in 1819, John I. Cristman, son of Jacob Cristman 
and Catherine Small. She died in 1879, leaving one 
daughter Eliza Margaret, born in 1837, married to 
Dr. Eli Fox. 

John I. Cristman was born March, 1797, died in 
1876. Eliza Edick, wife of Matthew Fox, belonged 
to another old family in the early days of Tryon 
county. The two little girls of the Sharrer family, 
made captives by the Indians, on their return 
from this captivity and growing to womanhood, one 
married an Edick, the other a Fox. She was the 
grandmother of Dr. Fox, who married the grand- 
daughter of Mary Herkimer. 



IOI 



Mary and Katharine Cristman, the wives of John 
and Henry Strong, were sisters, and they were also 
sisters of John I. Cristman, who married Margaret 
Tygert, daughter of Mary Herkimer. Their father 
was Jacob Cristman, their mother Mary Small. 
Julia Dingman, who married George Strong, was the 
granddaughter of Margaret Phillipse Dingman, 
daughter of Harmon Phillipse, a descendant of the 
Phillipses of Westchester county, and a cousin of the 
Livingstons and Van Rensselaers ; she died Decem- 
ber 17, 1878. Elijah Herkimer Strong, the fourth 
son of Elijah Strong and Catherine Herkimer, was 
born in 181 1 and died in 1893. He had four 
children by his first wife and one son John by his 
second wife, he being the only John Strong living in 
this branch of the family, the name having been car- 
ried for nine generations. Elijah Herkimer Strong 
was commissioned lieutenant of the 1 16th Regiment 
of Infantry in 1833, and was made captain in 1835. 
His cousin Daniel B. Strong was colonel of the regi- 
ment, William L. Marcy, commander-in-chief. 



102 



EXTRACT OF POEM BY ALFRED B. STREET. 
In Centennial Vol. (Burgoyne.) 

Hark, a wild cry ! it is the eagle's scream ! 
Ha ! the new world emerges ! 

Mountains rise there that know no tread of Kings; 
Blasts that waft liberty on chainless wings; 
Lakes that hold skies, the swallow tires to cross; 
Prairies, earth-oceans; woods, a whirlwind's toss 
Would seem a puny streak; and with one tongue 
All thundered "come" the welkin echoing, rung 

•'Come" and it went; it took its Mayflower flight. 

There the vast forest stood, the free, the green, 
The wild, a tangled, thronging, vaulted scene, 
Broadening the picture, here, grand rivers rolled, 
Grand mountains rose; and in their numbers bold, 
Wild foemen thronged with tomahawk and knife 
Ready to whelm in most unequal strife, 
But what of these! a stalwart heart and arm 
Freedom upbore, the danger owned a charm, 
And in the forest with bold tread it trod 
Waging the contest for itself and God. 
And soon blithe harvest waved where forests frowned; 
Roofs studded rivers; and in gladdening sound 
The song of peace and industry arose, 
Where burst the warwhoops of unsparing foes; 
And church-spires pointed, where up towered the pine; 
And Freedom planted sure its ever-lasting shrine. 

Oh glorious Freedom! grandest, brightest gift 
Kind heaven has given our souls to heavenward lift! 
Oh glorious Freedom ! are there hearts so low 
That its live flame finds there no answering glow ? 
Mid all this affluence of deed and thought 
With which this age of majesty was fraught, 
Two war-cries rung on a new nation's breath, 
This from the warm South " Liberty or Death! " 
This from the cold North, both stern shouted thence, 
" Nothing for tribute, millions for defense," 
Up sprung a land with weapon bared for use, 

Like Pallas bounding from the brow of Zeus. 



103 

Three threatening strands were woven by the Crown; 
One stretching up Champlain; one reaching down 
The Mohawk Valley whose green depths retained 
Its Tory heart, Fort Stanwix scarce restrained; 
And one of Hudson's flood; the three to link 
Where stood Albania's gables by its brink. 

Glance at the picture — ere we spread our wing — 

Of the grand battle whose famed deeds we sing; 

Here spreads Champlain with mountain skirted shore 

" Caniadere Guarentie," open door 

Of the fierce Iroquois to seek their foes 

In regions stretching from Canadian snows. 

West in a purple dream of misty crag, 

The Adirondacks' wavy outlines drag; 

East, the Green Mountains, home of meadowy brooks, 

Of crossroad hamlets, sylvan school-house nooks, 

Church-covered hills and lion-hearted men 

Taught by the torrent tumbling down the glen, 

By the grand tempests sweeping around the cliff 

By the wild waters tossing by their skiff 

Freedom, till freedom grew their very life. 

Next, the dark Horican,* that mountain vein, 

Bright islet-spangled tassel to Champlain 

The Highlands souled with Washington and grand 

With his high presence watching o'er the land? 

Is that a red-coat, glancing from a tree? 

Or sunsets straggling beam ? that sound, the tramp 

Of the approaching foe? the hunters camp 

Cowers lonely in the woods; the settler's hut 

Has lost its latch-string, and its door is shut. 

Turn we to other scenes ! In beauty bright 
The Mohawk Valley claims our wandering sight 
Veined by its river; loveliest landscapes smiled 
On every side the rural and the wild. 
Here, shone the field in billowy gold, and there, 
The shornless forest twined its leafy lair. 
Here, the red homestead weltering in its wheat; 
There, the rude shanty in its green retreat; 
Where the plow paused, the trapper hid his trap; 



* Lake George. 



104 

The kinebell mingled with the rifle's clap; 
And civilization reared her school-house where 
The skin-clad hunter lately slew the bear. 

At the green valley's head Fort Stanwix stood, 

Its bastions, half restored, ringed close with wood, 

Smooth meadows, southward to the Mohawk led 

North, De-a-wain-sta's mile-long portage spread 

To wild Wood Creek which linked beneath its screen 

With Lake Oneida's rich, transparent green 

Opening that region where a fringe of lakes 

Hangs from a skirt of wilderness that makes 

A sylvan border to the southern flow 

Of that grand inland sea, Ontario; 

Those watery pendants not disordered flung, 

But seeming as in measured spaces hung 

To ornament Ontario's emerald dress 

With tassels of pure, diamond loveliness. 

A band of boats spots dark Oswego's breast; 
St. Leger's corps, Fort Stanwix to invest; 
Where foamed the Falls, they plunge within the woods 
In battle order; the wild solitudes 
Glitter with knife and musket; massive boots 
Tear through the thickets, stumble over roots; 
Here, the lithe Indian's light, elastic bound, 
There, the slow yager's tramp, the Ranger found 
His old hacks on the trees when other days 
Saw him a trapper; mid the sylvan maze. 

The Indians, tramping through the forest shades, 
Kindle their camp-fires like great panther eyes, 
And dance their dances; the flotilla plies 
Dabbling, still upward, till the boats they beach 
At the Creek's mouth, and soon Fort Stanwix reach, 
Where gallant Gansevoort and brave Willett stand, 
To hurl defiance at the coming band. 
Gansevoort, the young, the gallant, with a soul 
That only knew bold duty for its goal. 
What though the walls were incomplete ! behind 
Uptowered a heart no abject fear could bind ! 
To the foe's threat his fort-made flag he reared, 



io5 

Sustained by patience, and by courage cheered; 
When came demand to yield, he calm replied 
With firm refusal, and the worst defied. 
Down the green valley fly the tidings; swift 
The Germans spring; the living torrents drift 
To the Fort's aid; by day, the thronging trees 
Are frecked with quick glints; steel glitterings seize 
Upon the leaves and change them to white gems; 
By night the camp-fires dance along the stems, 
Turn green to ruddy gold, and black to red, 

Build crimson roofs and floors of carmine spread. 

Bold Herkimer has left, to lead the band 

His hearth, half fortress and half house, to stand 

Defenseless on the Mohawk; many a roof 

A rustic manor-house, walls bullet proof 

Stately in terraces and in shrubbery, 

Old oaks, green walks to dingle, statued trees 

Eagle-shaped thicket, bushes carved to deer 

And wolf, and where huge hearth glared red with cheer, 

Fragrant with woodland feasts, is left to breeze 

And sunshine and protecting walls of trees 

While the roused dwellers march with Cox the brave, 

And Paris, their loved sylvan soil to save 

From the invaders tread; the farm house, too, 

With broad piazza, dormer windows, hue 

Of red, and native poplars belted round, 

Whose leaves in hot days yield a cooling sound, 

With the vast barn of stone, a fort at need; 

And pastures where sleek cattle, frequent steed 

And flock luxuriate, also sends its throngs 

Wild to avenge the invaded region's wrongs 

And smite the foe. 

Neighbor, with news of humblest import, meets 

With neighbor, in those broad, straggling streets. 

The settlers strive with handspike and with axe, 

Seeing their buckwheat-plats and meadow-stacks 

Melting, sends freemen to drive back the foe, 

Their sluggish bosoms warmed to patriot-glow. 

As the mild dweller, groping by blazed trees, 
Wades his dim way to join the patriot band 



io6 



Summoned to drive the foeman from the land, 
Together blent at last, the gallant throng 
Down the rough road, unmindful, streams along; 
A hollow lies in front; the patriots reach 
Its causeway: with a sudden burst and screech 
Of rifle shots and war-whoops, savage forms 
Rise from the marshy borders; hissing storms 
Of bullets rain upon the broken ranks 
That strive to rally; from the deadly banks 
Blazes swift death; the painted warriors dash 
Wild in the whirling midst; knives, hatchets flash 
And foes mad throttle; Indian, German, close 
In grapple; Ranger, neighbor, meet as foes 
Bosom to bosom; as speeds fierce the fray 
The Germans form in circles and repay 
Carnage with carnage; Herkimer has dropped 
But still directs the furious conflict propped 
Against a friendly stem; a flashing wakes 
Fiercer and redder; a loud tumult breaks 
Grander and sterner than the deadly scene, 
The battle of the skies! its mightier mien 
Of loftier anger checks the lesser strife, 
But as it marches off, the fight for life 
Rages anew with fiercer, wilder burst, 
For now the Royal Greens, friends, neighbors erst 
Yea brothers of their foes, have joined the fight 
And Havoc greets them with renewed delight. 
Here the clubbed rifle, there, the thrusting spear 
And plunging knife; Cox, Paris fall! career 
The steeds of slaughter through that awful dell 
Till baffled, beaten, the cowed redskins swell 
Their shrill retreating cries, and quick the form 
Of battle strides away, as strode the storm 
From the red dell; quiet settles sweet upon the scene; 
And Nature to itself consigns the dread ravine. 

During the sky's fierce onslaught, at the Fort 

A whirlpool raged of strife; the sally port 

Sent Willett forth to Johnson's camp at hand, 

And drove him headlong; evening's air-breaths fanned 

The sylvan Fort in its renewed repose, 

While night closed sad on its disheartened foes. 



Meanwhile the tidings of Oriskany 

And Bennington careered; and glad and free 

Hope spread white pinions; throngs to Schuyler pour 

Swelling his ranks all abject terror o'er. 

Back to Fort Stanwix. As time onward stepped, 
Closer St. Leger's threatening parallels crept, 
In the near meadow at the Scalping Tree, 
The patriot saw the redskin in his glee 
Wield the keen knife in token of the hour 
When his hot head would feel its horrid power. 
Oft did he see, too, on the evening glow 
St. Leger's swarthy force and huge chapeau 
By the wild, painted Brant, or Johnson bluff, 
As he surveyed the Fort that in its rough 
Half finished form still showed defiant teeth 

At the thronged foe its sylvan walls beneath. 

At last a night of scowling tempest saw 

Willett and Stockwell from the fortress draw 

Their snaky lengths through slumbering foes; they grope 

Through the black wilds until their blinding scope 

Is kindled by the sun; then on they steer, 

The brook and blackberry their only cheer, 

Till down the valley on their flying steeds 

They Schuyler seek; their summons warm he heeds; 

And Arnold tracks Fort Dayton's valley trail 

And sends on Hon Yost with his cunning tale. 

Along the Fort's rough road that led to where 

Fort Stanwix stood, a man with slouching air 

And wandering glance moved swift on ponderous feet; 

The noon-tide sun beams in his pathway beat 

A thread-like trail that through the forest wound 

And scarce mid thickets faint existence found. 

Now the trail vanished in some windfall vast; 

And now he vaulted o'er the pine tree cast 

By the tornado, rearing frequent bulk; 

Now waded some slow stream with snaky skulk 

Oozing through rotten mould till one loose bog 

Wallowed about; his large splay foot would clog 

And stumble o'er the blind and sketchy trail 



io8 

Touching along; 'twas Hon Yost, with his tale 
Apt to his tongue to tell the savage foe 

Of Arnold striking his o'erwhelming blow. 

About the Scalping Tree, the redskins form 
In solemn council; the debate is warm — 
After wise Hah-wen-ne-yo's aid was sought — 
Whether to leave at once the war-path fraught 
With such dire evil as Oriskany, 
Or follow still the King, their Father; free 
Flows their fierce, guttural talk; their minds in doubt 
Waver; a figure at a warning shout 
Bursts on their rows; 'tis Hon Yost; "red men fly 
The white man comes to slay; his hosts are nigh, 
Thick as the leaves! " he shouts; they start, recoil, 
The council breaks; they flee in wild turmoil, 
In vain St. Leger hurls his wrath, and storms 
The furious Johnson; quick retreating forms 
Fill all the portage toward Wood Creek; and soon 
The golden quiet of the afternoon 
Steeps the wide lansdcape; field and stream and tree 
Restored once more to soft tranquility. 

All round the sylvan Fort as sunset shone 
Settled the forest stillness, and alone, 
Instead of wild, fierce prowling forms, it sees 
The steadfast columns of the peaceful trees: 
Instead of flitting red-coats gleaming rich 
In the gold rays from battery wall and niche 
Of breastwork, it beholds the sweep of leaves 
Gorgeous in all the pomp that sun-down weaves. 
The low light bathes the empty meadows spread 
Along the Mohawk, trampled with the tread 
So late of foes; as silver twilight falls, 
And umber thickens on the forest walls 
The landscape hears, instead of sounds that fright, 
The murmured music of the quiet night, 
Again the morning, but no Lion's glare 
Reddens the field; in sullen, dark despair 
He crouches in his den upon the height; 

While Freedom spends the day in songful, wild delight. 



109 

And now our banner; oft it's hues it changed; 

Through many varying shapes its aspect ranged; 

The elm of Massachusetts and the oak 

Of Carolina into being woke 

The tree of Liberty: (how strangely shows 

This patriot union of such after foes !) 

Till a new Constellation starred its blue 

And red and white their deep, striped colors drew; 

Blue, red and white, like tints that quiver and reel 

Over the velvet rich of red hot steel. 

Wide streamed that banner ! as its folds flashed free 

Auroral splendors flashed in sympathy ; 

Until the Patriot saw the earthborn dyes 

Reflected in the Standard of the skies. 

Oh, while those splendors beam upon the sight 

May that broad Banner glow in living light ! 

Oh, may its trophies wave in pomp sublime 

Till melts the midnight of departing time. 



I IO 



THE HERKIMERS. 



GENEAOLOGY. 



i st generation : 

Jurgh (George) Herkimer and wife Madaline emi- 
grated from the Palitinate of the Rhine in 1721. In 
1 725, with ninety-four others, received a patent to the 
Burnettsfield tract for purchase of land from the 
Indians. (Their son). 

2d generation : 

Johan Jost Herkimer and wife Catharine came in 
1 72 1 with the third immigration of Palatins, settled 
at the German Flatts. He died Aug. 1775, leaving 
children thirteen in number. - 

3d generation : 

1. Nicholas, b, 1728, d. Aug. 1777, m. 1st Lany 
Tygert, sister of Peter S. Tygert, m. 2d Myra Tygert, 
dau. of Peter S. Tygert ; no children. 

2. Henry, (Hendrick) b. 1730, d. 1779, wife Cath- 
arine ; ten children. 

. 3. George, b. 1744, d. 1786, m. Alyda Schuyler; 
seven children. 

4. Johan Joseph, d. 1787, went to Canada ; two sons. 

5. John, d. 181 7, unmarried. 

6. Barbara Elizabeth, b. 1726, d. 1800, m. in 1743, 
Peter D. Schuyler, son of David Schuyler and Anna 
Bratt, he d. 1763. 

7. Gertrude, m. 1st Lt. Warmuth, killed at Oris- 
kany; m. 2d Rudolph Schumaker. 

8. Delia, m. Col. Peter Bellinger, who was killed at 
Oriskany. 



1 1 1 

9. Madaline (Lany) m. 1st Warner Tygert, son of 
Peter S. Tygert, he was killed at Oriskany, m. 2d 
Nicholas Snell. 

10. Katharine, m. George Henry Bell, taken 
prisoner at Oriskany. 

11. Mary, m. April, 1758, Rev. Abraham Rose- 
cranz. 

12. Anna, m. Peter Ten Broeck. 

13. Elizabeth, m. Hendrick Frey, d. 1820. 

3d generation : 

Henry Herkimer 2d and wife Catherine had ten 
children 

4th generation : 

1. Joseph, b. Oct. 1751, m. Elizabeth Katharine 
Schuyler, dau. of Peter D. Schuyler and Barbara 
Herkimer. 

2. Nicholas. 

3. Abraham. Descendants removed to Pennsyl- 
vania. 

4. George. 

5. Henry, b. 1767, d. 1813 ; his wife Catharine, b. 
1768, d. 1854. 

6. Katharine, m. Peter Schuyler, son of Peter D. 
Schuyler. 

7. Elizabeth. 

8. Gertrude, m. a Mr. Burr. 

9. Magdalene. 

10. Anna. 

4th generation : 

Joseph Herkimer 1st and Elizabeth Schuyler, four 
children. 



I I 2 



5th generation : 

1. Mary, b. 1778, d. 1798, m. William Tygert. 

2. Katharine, b. Oct. 1780, d. 1847, m. 1st Elijah 
Strong, he d. 181 2 ; 2d Samuel Lord. 

3. Nancy, b. 1784, d. 185 1, m. James Campbell. 

4. Dorothea, (Dolly) b. 1788, d. 1867, m. James 
Fox. 

5th generation : 

Mary Herkimer and William Tygert ; had children. 

6th generation : 

Margaret, 1st b. 1798, d. 1879, m - John I. Cristman. 

7th generation : 

1. Mary, b. 1820, d. young. 

2. Eliza Margaret, b. 1838, m. Dr. Eli Fox; he 
d. 1890. 

5th generation : 

Katharine Herkimer 2d and Elijah Strong had 
children. 

6th generation : 

1. John, b. 1799, d. 1869, m. Katharine Cristman, 
d. 1866 ; she dau. of Jacob Cristman. 

2. Henry, b. March, 1801, d. March, 1880, m. 
Mary Cristman ; she d. 1880. 

3. George, b. Jan., 1803, d. March, 1839, m - J u ^ a 
Anna Dingman ; she d. 1878. 

4. Mary Catharine, b. 1805, d. 1862, m. Phineas 
Golden. 

5. Elijah Herkimer, b. 181 1, d. 1893, m. 1st Julia 
McGee, m. 2d wife. 



"3 

Katharine Herkimer, and Samuel Lord had 
children. 

6. Nancy, b. 1823, d. 1888, m. James Waldron. 

7. Samuel, b. 1825, d. 1887, m. Cathern Harwick ; 
she d. 189 — . 

5th generation : 

Nancy Herkimer 3d and James Campbell ; had no 
children. 

Dorothea Herkimer and James Fox; had children. 

6th generation : 

1. James Henry, b. 1808, d. 1867, m. Sylvia Sher- 
wood ; no children. 

2. Mary Catharine, b. 181 1, d. 1890, m. Patrick 
Fox. 

3. Frederick Jeremiah, b. 1813, d. 1877, m - Dencie 
Clark. 

4. John Andrew, b. 181 5, m. Janet Hubbel. 

5. Matthew Herkimer, b. 1817, m. Eliza Edick ; 
she d. 189- 

6. Jacob William, b. 1827, d. 1866, m., and had one 
child, a daughter Dolly. 

6th generation . 

Children of Katherine Herkimer and Elijah Strong. 

1. John Strong and Catharine Cristman ; had 
children. 

7th generation : 

1. Mary Catharine, b. April, 182 1, m. Jacob 
Murphy ; he d. 1866 ; she d. July 1, 1903. 

2. Elijah John, b. 1823, d. 1896, m. Harriet 
Wheeler. 

8 



ii4 

3. Emily, b. 1827, m. Ephraim Wordworth, d. 
189—. 

4. Jacob William, b. 1830, d. April, 1902, m. 
Amelia Zeeman. 

5. Darius Wellington, b. 1834, d. Aug., 1901 ; 
unmarried. 

7th generation : 

1. Mary Catharine Strong and Jacob Murphy ; 
had one child. 

8th generation : 

John, b. 1840, m. Minerva Pierce ; one child. 

9th generation : 

Emily, b. 1869, m. Frank Razy ; they had one child. 

10th generation : 

Florence Razy, b. Dec, 1891. 

7th generation : 

2. Elijah J. and Harriet Strong ; had children. 

8th generation : 

1. Myrtie May, b. 1859, d. 1862. 

2. Bertha, b. i860, m. James Francis, d. 1895 ; two 
children. 

3. Berenice, b. 1869. 

9th generation. 

Children of Bertha Strong and James Francis. 

1. Iva May, b. 1885. 

2. Mabel, b. 1889. * 



"5 

7th generation : 

3. Emily Strong and Ephraem Woodworth; had 
no children. 

4. William Jacob Strong and Amelia Zeeman ; 
children. 

8th generation : 

1. Alice Catharine, b. 1861, m. Wilbur F. Persons. 

2. Herbert Wellington, b. 1869, m. Grace Marsh. 

8th generation : 

Alice Strong and Wilbur Persons; had one child. 

9th generation : 
Claude, b. 1882. 

8th generation : 

2. Herbert Strong and Grace Marsh ; have one 
child. 

9th generation : 
Ethelyn, b. 1898. 

6th generation : 

2. Henry Strong and Mary Cristman ; had children. 

7th generation : 

1. William, b. 1826, d. 1849, Nov. 14th, in Cali- 
fornia, unmarried. 

2. Elijah Herkimer, b. 1828, d. 1902, m. Martha 
George. 

3. George, b. 1830, m., 1854, Minerva Hastings. 

4. Jacob, b. 1832, m., 1856, Abbie Carver Amy; 
he d. July, 1902. 



n6 

5. James Campbell, b. 1835, m., 1858, Antoinette 
Chase, d. Dec, 1889. 

6. John O., b. 1837, m., 1868, Mary Nugent, d. 
1894. 

7. Mary Eliza, b. 1840, m. Rev. E. B. Olmstead ; 
he d. 1902. 

8. Charles B., b. 1841, d. 1899, m. Sarah Whitny. 

9. Gilbert W., b. 1843, m. Mary Whitny. 

10. Louise Catharine, b. 1846, m. Walter Cheney. 

11. Henry, b. 1850, d. young. 

7th generation : 

William Strong, d. unmarried. 

7th generation : 

2. Elijah Strong and Martha George ; had children. 

8th generation : 

1. Charles, b. 1854, m. twice; m. Mary Holton ; 
no children. 

2. Blanche, b. i860, unmarried. 

3. Grace, b. 1865, m. Harry Sawyer; had one son. 

9th generation : 
Pierre, b. 1890. 

7th generation : 

George Strong and Minerva Hastings; children. 

8th generation : 

1. Chauncy, m. 1st Mary O'Leary, and had one 
child Mary, who m. Roy Hopkins ; m. 2d wife ; and 
had five children, names not known. 



ii7 

8th generation : 

2. Estelle, m. Gideon Williams. 

3. William, m. Nettie Hake. 

8th generation : 

2. Estelle Strong and Gideon Williams ; had 
children. 

9th generation : 

1. Myrtie, m. Robert Pitcher, 1902 ; one daughter, 
Marion Pitcher, born May, 1903. 

2. Genevieve. 

3. George/ 

4. Pauline. 

8th generation : 

3. William Strong and Nettie Hake ; children. 
Eldest son Grover, twins, Morris and Morton ; 

daughter, Grace. 

7th generation : 

4. Jacob Cristman Strong and Abbie Amy ; three 
children. 

8th generation : 

1. Harry, b. 1859, m - Mary Todd; she died 189- 

2. John Carver, b. 1874, m. Sadie Clark, 1899. 

3. Robert, d. young. 

8th generation : 

Harry Strong and Mary Todd, his wife, had chil- 
dren. 



n8 

9th generation : 

Louise, Arthur, Helen. 

8th generation : 

John Carver Strong and Sadie Clark ; had children. 

9th generation : 

Dorothea, b. May, 1900, d. March, 1901 ; Elaine, 
b. Oct., 1901. 

7th generation : 

5. James Campbell Strong and Antoinette Chase ; 
had three children. 

8th generation : 

Adella Louise, b. Nov., 1859, d. May, 1871. 

James Franklin, b. Feb., 1863, m. 1901, Emma A. 
Mowrey. 

Fred Elmer, b. Feb., 1867, m. 1892, Frances Vir- 
ginia Wynn. 

8th generation : 

J. Franklin Strong and Emma A. Mowrey ; one 
child. 

9th generation : 

Fred, b. Dec. 6th, 1902. 

Emma A. Strong, d. Dec. 31st, 1902. 

7th generation : 

6. John O. Strong and Mary Nugent; two chil- 
dren. 

8th generation : 
Minnie, Daisy. 



II 9 

7th generation : 

8. Charles B. Strong and Sarah Whitney had no 
children. 

9. Gilbert Strong and Mary Whitney had three 
children. 

8th generation : 

Mary Whitney, b. 1872, m. Frank Dutton. 

Harry Gilbert, b. 1878, m. Aug., 1903, Mabel E. 
Buss. 

Howard, b. 1890. 

7th generation : 

7. Mary E. Strong and E. B. Olmstead had no 
children. 

10. Louise Catharine and Walter Cheney ; one 
daughter. 

8th generation : 
Mabel, b. 1879. 

6th generation : 

3. George Strong and Julia Dingman had four 
children. 

7th generation : 

1. Mary Catharine, b. 1826, m. 1851, John Cowan, 
he d. 1893. 

2. Nancy Margaret, b. 1828, m. 1st Lauren Ensign, 
2d James M. Baily, she d. June, 1885, in Beloit, 
Kansas. . 

3. Julia Salome, b. 1832, m. Lorenzo Langmade, 
she d. Feb. 1900. 

4. Phcebe Susanna, b. 1838, m. William H. Cowen, S 
he d. in 1891. 



I 20 

6th generation : 

3. George Strong and Julia Dingman. 

7th generation : 

1. Mary Catharine Strong and John Cowan, 
children. 

8th generation : 

1. William Francis, b. 1852, m. Margaret Doyle. 

2. John Franklin, b. 1854, m. Rebecka McClosky. 

3. Charles Frement, b. 1856, m. Annie Curtis, she 
d. 1895. 

4. Horace Greely, b. 1859, m. Mary Mead. 

5. Caroline Sherman, b. 1861, m. Merritt B. Knight. 

6. Harry Herkimer, b. 1865. 

8th generation : 

1. William F. Cowan and Margaret Doyle; one 
child. 

9th generation : 

Loana, b. Jan. 1881. 

8th generation : 

2. John F. Cowan and Rebecka McCloskey ; 
children. 

9th generation : 

1. Elinor Rose, b. March, 1883. 

2. Pierrepont, b. Sept., 1887. 

3. Durbin, b. June, 1890, d. April, 1895. 

4. Francis Clark, b. Dec, 1894. 



121 

8th generation : 

3. Charles F. Cowan and Annie Curtis; children. 

9th generation : 

Charles Curtis, b. 1888, d. Aug. 4th, 1895, of yellow 
fever at Costa Rica; Louisa May, b. 1890, d. July 
7th, 1895, at Costa Rica. The mother also died of 
yellow fever July 2d, 1895. 

8th generation : 

4. Horace G. Cowan and Mary Meade ; had 
children. 

9th generation : 

1. John David, b. Oct., 1887. 

2. Virginia Allen, b. 1891. 

3. Harold, b. 1897. 

7th generation : 

2. Nancy Margaret Strong m. 1st Lauren Ensign, 
2d James Bailey ; one son. 

8th generation : 

Philip Webster Ensign, b. May, 1858. 

7th generation : 

3. Julia Salome Strong and Lorenzo Langmade ; 
children. 

8th generation : 

1. Julia Margaret, b. Jan., 1854, m. G. Webb Ber- 
tram. 

2. George Strong, b. Aug., 1855, m. Jennie Knight. 



I 22 

3. Katharine Appha, b. Aug., i860, d. 1883. 

4. Eugenie Maude, b. June, 1862, d. Feb., 1900, m. 
Egbert Bigelow. 

5. William Swett, b. May, 1864, m. Margaret Jolie. 

6. Edith Emily, b. Jan., 1870, m. Martin Cooper. 

7. Louise Amelia, b. April, 1872. 

8th generation : 

Julia Margaret Langmade and G. Webb Bertram ; 
one son. 

9th generation : 

John, b. Nov., 1877. 

8th generation : 

2. George S. Langmade and Jennie Knight ; 
children. 

9th generation : 

Forrest, b. Nov., 1883. 
Gertrude, b. Sept., 1888. 
Reuben L. b. Sept., 1890. 
Katharyn, b. Sept., 1892. 
Copia, b. Jan., 1898. 

Children of J. S. and L. D. Langmade. 

8th generation : 

4. Eugenia Langmade and Egbert Bigelow; 
children. 

9th generation : 

1. Salome, b. Sept., 1890. 



123 

2. Ruth, b. June, 1892. 

3. Dorothy Eugenie, b. 1894. 

4. Allan, b. 1896. 

8th generation : 

5. William S. Langmade and Margaret Jolie ; 
children. 

9th generation : 

1. Nina Salome, b. 1894. 

2. Mildred. 

3. Frances Anna, b. 1902. 

8th generation : 

6. Edith Langmade and Martin Cooper; children 

9th generation : 

1. Minerva Katharyn, b. July, 1894. 

2. Bertha Frances, b. Oct., 1895. 

3. Junia Joyce, June, 1898. 

4. Florence Louise, b. Feb., 1901. 

5. Marjorie Anna, b. Jan., 1903. 

7th generation : 

4. Phoebe S. Strong and William H, Cowen ; 
children. 

8th generation : 

1. James Cooke, b. Oct., 1866, m., Dec, 1891, 1st 
Lida Carruthers; m., Oct., 1898, 2d Annie Cowen 

Murray. 

2. William H. Caldwell, b, Nov. nth, 1867, m.. 
Charlotte Terriere, June, 1890. 

3. Claude Chappel, b. Feb., 1870, d. Aug., 1870. 



I2 4 

8th generation : 

i. James C. Cowen and Lida Carruthers ; one 
child. 

9th generation : 

Anna Alyda, b. Feb. 20, 1893. 

Lida Carruthers Cowen, d. Feb. 20th, 1893. 

8th generation : 

William H. Cowen and Charlotte Terriere ; 
children. 

9th generation : 

Edward Claude, b. March, 1891. 
James Carruthers, b. June, 1892. 
Frances Kathryn, b. May, 1895. 

6th generation : 

4. Mary Catharine Strong and Phineas Golden ; 
children. 

7th generation : 

1. Amanda Catharine, m. Nels Johnson ; no 
children. 

2. Harriet, b. 1838, m. James Shrigly. 

3. James, b. 1840, m.; no children. 

4. Phineas, b. Oct., 1846, m. Margaret McLaren 
July, 1890. 

7th generation : 

Harriet Golden and James Shrigly ; one child. 

8th generation : 

Mary, m. Calvin A. Palmer ; one son. 



I2 5 

9th generation : 

James Shrigly Palmer, b. 1895. 

7th generation : 

Phineas Golden and Margaret McLaren ; had 
children. 

8th generation : 

Agnes M., b. April, 1891. 

Phineas L., Jr., b. Aug., 1892. 

Harriet M., b. April 5th, 1895, d. Jan. 29th, 1896. 

6th generation : 

5. Elijah Herkimer Strong and Julia McGee ; had 
children. 

7th generation : 

1. Anne Eliza, b. 1836, d. 1875, m. Amassa Dun- 
shee. 

2. Ellen A., b. 1838, m. 1862, Henry M. Crouse. 

3. Emma Estelle, b. , m. C. A. Henderson. 

4. Henriette, b. 1850, d. 1895, m. Darius Merritt. 

6th generation : 

Elijah Herkimer Strong by 2d wife, one child. 

7th generation : 
John Strong. 

7th generation : 

Anne Eliza Strong and Amasa Dunshee had 
children. 



126 

8th generation ; 

i. Frank Strong, b. 1862, m. Maude Hamilton, 
1887; he graduated at Princeton University 1885; 
lawyer at Des Moines. 

2. George Wayland, b. 1863, m. 1897, Bertha M. 
Murphy. 

3. Edna B. Dunshee, b. 18 — , m. July 22, 1903, 
Edward L. Mann. 

8th generation : 

Frank Strong Dunshee and Maude Hamilton ; 
had children. 

9th generation : 

William Hamilton, b. 1892. 
Agnes Maude, b. 1895. 

8th generation : 

George Wayland Dunshee and Bertha Murphy; 
children. 

9th generation : 

Amasa Robert, b. April, 1902. 
Twin boys, b. Sept. 12, 1903. 

7th generation : 

2. Ellen A. Strong and Henry M. Crouse ; had 
children. 

8th generation : 

1. Edith J., b. Sept. 1863, m. Nov., 1885, W. S. 
Gilmer ; six children. 

2. D. Webster, b. Nov., 1865. 

3. Frank Strong, b. Nov., 1867. 



I 27 

4. M. Evelyn, b. April, 1872. 

5. Henry M., Jr., b. Feb., 1877, m - July, 1900, Isa- 
bella Deal; son Henry, b. April, 1901. 

6. Nellie, b. Aug., 1879, d. Sept., 1879. 

9th generation : 

Edith Crouse and W. S. Gilmer had six children. 

H. Campbell Gilmer, b. April, 1886. 

Howard Gilmer, b. Oct., 1888. 

Mabel Blanche Gilmer, b. Dec, 1889. 

Nellie Estelle, b. May, 1891. 

Paul G., b. May, 1894. 

Julia Edith, b. Sept., 1898. 

7th generation : 

Emma Estelle Strong and C. A. Henderson ; one 
child. 

8th generation : 

Lee Hall Henderson, b. 1877, m. Dec, 1902, 
Lessie May Wilson, b. Nov., 1878; Kentucky 
parents, Scotch descent. 

7th generation : 

4. Henriette Strong and Darius Merritt ; children. 

8th generation : 

Clarence, b. 1882. 
Earle, b. 1884. 

6th generation : 

6. Nancy Lord and James Waldron ; children. 



128 

7th generation : 

Samuel, b. 1844, d. 18 — , m. Rosette Golden. 
Emma, b. 1850, m. Charles Foote ; he d. 1899. 

8th generation : 

Emma Waldron and Charles Foote ; one son. 
Walter, b. 1883. 

6th generation : 

7. Samuel Lord and Cathern Harwick ; had 
children. 

7th generation : 

1. Elizabeth b. 1848, m. 1st Jefferson Titus, 2d 
Daniel Shedd. 

2. Ida, b. 1850, m. Frank Houghton, 

3. Ella b 1852, m. Lewis C. Spooner. 

4. Clara Florence, b. 1856. 

5. Frank, b. 1859, m - Estelle Wetherlow. 

6. Manly, b. 1861, m. Lena Butler. 

Elizabeth Lord and Jefferson Titus ; had one child. 

8th generation : 

T. Jay Titus, b. 1880, m., Feb. 1903, Grace C. 
Phelps. 

7th generation : 

Ida Lord and Frank Houghton ; had children. 

8th generation : 

Harry, b. 1881, d. 1897. 
Gertrude, b. 1885, d. 1887. 



129 

7th generation : 

Ella Lord and Lewis C. Spooner; had children. 

8th generation : 

Louie, b. 1874, d. 1880. 

Paul Lord, b. 1885. 

Florence Kathryn, b. July, 1888. 

7th generation : 

Frank Lord and Estelle Wetherlow ; had one child. 

8th generation : 
Bessie, b. 1889. 

7th generation : 

Manly Lord and Lena Butler ; children. 

8th generation : 

Harry Herkimer, b. 1888. 
Pauline, b. 1893. 
Donald, b. 1898. 

5th generation : 

Dorothea (Dolly) Herkimer and James Fox ; had 
children. 

6th generation : 

1. James Henry, b. 1808, d. 1867, m. Sylvia Sher- 
wood. 

2. Mary Catharine, b. 181 1, d. 1890, m. Patrick 
Fox. 

3. Frederick Jeremiah, b. 181 3, d. 1887, m - Dancie 
Clark. 



130 

4. John Andrew, b. 1815, m. Janet Hubbel. 

5. Matthew Herkimer, b. 181 7, m. Eliza Edick ; 
she d. 1899. 

6. Jacob William, b. 1827, d. 1866; married, left 
one child, Dolly. 

6th generation : 

1. James Henry Fox and Sylvia Sherwood; had 
no children. 

2. Mary Catharine and Patrick Fox; had children. 

7th generation : 

1. Dolly Margaret, m. Delos Cole. 

2. Sylvia Catharine, unmarried. 

3. Sarah Eliza, m. Wilson Richards. 

4. Nancy Elizabeth, m. Adam Dager. 

None of those four had children. 

6th generation : 

Frederick Jeremiah and Dancie Clark Fox ; had 
children. 

7th generation : 

1. Elizabeth Katharine, twice m. ; 2d hus. Abner 
Jones; children by 2d marriage. 

8th generation : 

Paul. 

Elizabeth (Bessie). 

7th generation : 

2. Helen Fox, d. at twelve years. 

3. Melissa, b. 1845, m - Edgar Wheeler. 



i3i 

8th generation : 

Effie, b. 1868, m. John Sprague. 

Melissa Fox and Edgar Wheeler ; had children, 
Dora, Frederick M., Agnes E., Adelbert, Rutherford, 
Edward, Elmer, Blanche, Sylvia. 

7th generation : 

4. Georgiana, b. 1847, m - J onn Wheeler, d. 1882 ; 
children. 

8th generation : 

Ethel. 

Daughter name not known. 

7th generation : 

5. Alice Fox, b. 185 1, m. Henry Clarke, d. 
1885. 

8th generation : 

One son, Niel C. Clark, b. 1877, m. Dora Gassen. 

7th generation : 

6. Mary Fox, b. 1854, m. Esadore Gilbert ; two 
children. 

8th generation : 

Myrtle, b. 1874, m. Clyde Calderherd Slemmons, 
1899. 

lone, twenty years younger than Myrtle, b. 1894. 

6th generation : 

4. John Andrew Fox and Janet Hubbel ; one child- 



132 

7th generation : 

Antoinette G., m. Mr. Ford ; children. 

8th generation : 

i. Bertha M., m. Mr. Brown. 

2. Leslie A. 

3. Edna M. 

4. Loena A. 

5. Raymond. 

6th generation : 

5. Matthew Herkimer Fox and Eliza Edick ; had 
children. 

7th generation : 

1. Cristina Elizabeth, m. Justin Smith. 

2. James Henry Fox, b. 1846, d. 1873, m. Aurelia 
Spiers. 

3. Ella Vannette, m. Josiah Just, one child. 

8th generation : 

Eleanor Catharine, b. 1885. 

7th generation : 

1. Cristina Fox and Justin Smith; had children. 

8th generation : 

1. Justin Matthew, b. 1873. 

2. George Herkimer, b. 1876. 

3. Benjamin Just, b. 1878. 

4. Clark Sherwood, b. 1881. 



*33 

7th generation : 

James Henry Fox and Aurelia Spiers ; had child, 
one son. 

8th generation : 

James Henry, Jr., b. 1873, m> Susie Alice Cutler. 

4th generation : 

2. Nicholas, descendants not known. 

3. Abraham, descendants removed to Pennsylvania. 

4. George Herkimer, b. 1761 ; had four sons and 
eight daughters. 

5th generation : 

1. William, removed to Chautauqua Co., N. Y.; 
children, two sons, Earle and Theodore. 

2. Henry. 

3. Timothy, settled near Schuyler's Lake ; had 
dau. Mary, who m. a Mitchell ; had dau. Elizabeth. 

4. George. 



Copy of Family Register of George Herkimer, 
Jr., Fourth Son of Henry Herkimer, Sr., and 
Grandson of John Jost Herkimer, Sr. 

George Herkimer, b. 1764, d. 1829. 
Mary Loux, his wife, b. in Stone Arabia, 1761 ; 
had children as follows : 

1. Caty Herkimer, b. 1785. 

2. Elizabeth Herkimer, b. 1787. 

4. Hannah Herkimer, b. 1789. 

5. Henry G. Herkimer, b. 1792. 

6. Catrina Herkimer, b. 1794. 



■34 

7. Marget Herkimer, b. 1796. 

8. Mary Herkimer, b. 1799. 

9. George Herkimer 2d, b. 1801. 

10. William Herkimer, b. 1803. 

11. Timothy Herkimer, b, 1806. 

12. Delany Herkimer, b. 1809. 

I also include what I learn as to their descendants. 

1. Caty, m. Herrick ; and had two sons, George 
and Stephen. 

2. Elizabeth, m. Stephen Hubbard, and a few 
years ago lived at Conesus Lake, N. Y. 

5. Henry G. Herkimer, left three sons and five 
daughters as follows : 

1. George, went to Brooklyn. 

2. Abner ) A/r 1 tt T . 

A . y went to Melrose, Wisconsin. 

3. Amisa j 

4. Lovilla, m. William Martin, Centreville, N. Y. 

5. Lucy, m. Caswell, and in 1901, seventy-eight 
years old, was still living at Exeter, Otsego Co., N. 
Y., and their son T. A. Caswell at that time was 
superintendent of schools at Catskill, N. Y. ; now 
living in Rochester, N. Y. 

6. Mary, m. Wm. Ensign ; went west. 

7. Matilda. 

8. Amanda. 

9. George Herkimer 2d ; had daughter Anna. 

10. William Herkimer, m. Harriet Cable ; had 
three sons as follows : 

1. Theodore B., lives at Belfast, N. Y. 

2. Earle, lives at Belfast, N. Y. 

3. Irwin. 

11. Timothy ; had two sons and two daughters as 
follows : 



135 

Sarah Ann, m. A. Webster. 

Mary, m. D. W. Mitchell. 

Mary Herkimer Mitchell and her husband D. W. 
Mitchell live on the old Henry Herkimer farm at 
the foot of Schuyler Lake, and have a daughter, 
Lizzie Mitchell ; Sarah Ann Webster also lives near 
there and has an old family Bible, printed at Han- 
over, Germany, 1530. 

4th generation : 

Henry, son of Henry and wife Catharine ; had 
children. 

5th generation : 

1. Joseph, b. 1802, d. 1867, m. Clarissa Cook, b. 
Nov., 1808, d. 1880. 

2. Henry H. 

6th generation : 

Mrs. Amy Tunnecliffe, descendant of Henry, son of 
Henry. 

7th generation : 

Mrs. Mary Timmerman, dau. of Mrs. Tunnecliffe. 

5th generation : 

3. Robert H., not known ; emigrated to Michigan. 

4. Alonzo. 

5. Jacob, removed to Michigan in 1844. 

6. Margaret. 

7. Mary. 

8. Hannah. 

9. Delia. 



136 

Joseph Herkimer and Clarissa Cook; had children. 

6th generation : 

1. Clarissa Sophia, b. Feb., 1825, d. Sept., 1880, 
m. Edward Maxwell. 

2. Catharine, July, 1826, d. 1894, m. George 
Bungay. 

3. Peabody, b. 1829, d. Dec, 1853. 

4. Helen, b. June, 183 1, d. 1900, m. William 
Holmes. 

5. Seneca, b. 1833, m. Eliza Young, b. 1841, 

6. Delia, b. Feb., 1835, m. William Van Auken. 

7. Mary Anne, b. Dec, 1836, m. Horace Lewis. 

8. Richard, b. Feb., 1838, d. April, 1855. 

9. Phebe, b. Feb. 13th, 1841, m. Joseph Tilyon ; 
one son. 

10. Joseph, b. June 7th, 1845, d. Feb., 1899, m. 
Harriett Cronk. 

1. Clarissa Sophia Herkimer] and Edward Max- 
well ; had children. 

7th generation : 
William. 
Agnes. 
Isadore. 

6th generation : 

2. Katharine Herkimer and George W. Bungay ; 
had children. 

7th generation : 

John G., m. Louise Schneider. 
Robert H., d. unmarried. 



*37 

John G. Bungay and Louise Schneider; had 
children. 

8th generation : 

George Bungay, Marie Bungay. 

6th generation : 

3. Helen Herkimer and William Holmes; had 
children. 

7th generation : 

Clara, m. McCabe ; had one child. 
Nellie, m. Northrop ; no children. 
Ambrose, not known. 

6th generation : 

Seneca Herkimer and Eliza Young, his wife ; had 
children. 

7th generation : 

1. Warren E., b. Oct., 1866, m. Edith Taylor Fox. 

2. Robert H., b. Feb., 1870, m. Ella V. Smith. 

3. Magdalene, b. Jan., 1872, d. July, 1872. 

7th generation : 

Robert Herkimer and Ella V. Smith; had one child. 

8th generation : 

Olivia Vida, b. July 28th, 1894. 



138 

6th generation : 

Delia Herkimer, m. William Van Auken ; children 

7th generation : 

Tunis, m. Millie McCarty ; no children. 
Kate, m. Charles McCarty ; two children. 
Lizzie, m. George Elwood ; has two children. 

6th generation : 

Mary Anne, m. Horace Lewis ; has one son. 

7th generation : 
Russell D. 

6th generation : 

Phebe, m. Joseph Tilyon ; one son. 

7th generation : 

Joseph Herkimer and Harriet Clark ; one son 
Ralph. 

5th generation : 

Jacob Herkimer, fifth son of Henry, son of Henry, 
emigrated to Michigan in 1844, or soon after; he had 
six sons and three daughters ; the names as far as 
known. 

6th generation : 

John Nicholas. 

Catharine, m. De Mott, near Niles, Mich. 

Elizabeth JEna, m. 1844, James Badger. 

7th generation : 

Had four sons and three daughters ; Mrs. Cecelia 



139 

C. B. Messenger, Laporte, Indiana ; others names 
unknown. 

Of the daughters of Henry Herkimer of the third 
generation, I could learn nothing of Elizabeth, Mag- 
dalen and Anna. 

4th generation : 

Gertrude, m. a Mr. Burr, and lived in Watertown, 
N. Y. 

5th generation : 

Had one daughter, Mrs. Buckly. 

4th generation : 

Katharine Herkimer and Peter Schuyler ; had 
children. 

5th generation : 

1. Peter, m. Sophia Cook, of Cazenovia. 

2. John, m. Mary McCord. 

3. Elizabeth, m. Du Colon. 

4. Nancy, m. Mires. 

5. Margaret, m. Solomon Mayer. 

6. Simeon, m. Sarah Evans. 

7. Abraham, m. Sarah Sutherland. 

8. Joseph, m. Margaret McCord. 

Peter Schuyler and Sophia Cook ; had children. 

6th generation : 

Sophia, Martha, Electra, Juliette. 

The other children I have not been able to trace. 



140 

Sons of John Jost Herkimer and Catharine, his wife. 

3d generation : 

Joseph Herkimer left two sons. 

4th generation : 

Joseph and Nicholas ; could not trace them. 

3d generation : 

George Herkimer and Alyda Schuyler ; had chil- 
dren, seven in number. 

4th generation : 

John, who was judge and member of Assembly in 
1822. 

Joseph, b. 1776, who d. 1824, m. Eunice Trow- 
bridge. 

Gertrude, b. 1785, d. 1873, m - Jacob I. Eacher. 

Joseph Herkimer andj Eunice Trowbridge; had 
children. 

5th generation : 

1. Warren, b. 1805, d. 1878, m. Annie Foley. 

2. Maria, b. , m. Daniel McMillan. 
3 Anna Eliza, m. Zenas Greene. 

4. Emily, b. 1813, d. 1899, m. Lester Greene. 

5. Alyda, m. Volney Eaton. 

1. Warren Herkimer and Annie Foley, his wife ; 
had children. 

6th generation : 
1. Horace. 



141 

2. Clark. 

3. Amanda. 

4. Mary, m. William Brayton. 

4. Mary Herkimer and William Brayton ; had 
children. 

7th generation : 
Harry. 
Jessie. 

Mary Louise. 
Warren H. 

5th generation : 

4. Emily Herkimer and Lester Greene ; children. 

6th generation : 

A. H. Greene, Little Falls, N. Y. ; could obtain no 
information, 

3d generation: 

John Herkimer, d. 181 7; unmarried. 
The daughters of Johan Jost Herkimer I am not 
able to place according to their ages. 

3d generation : 

Elizabeth Barbara Herkimer and Peter D. 
Schuyler ; had children. 

4th generation : 

1. Peter, b. 1745, m. Katharine Herkimer, dau. of 
Henry Herkimer. 

2. Hon Yost (John Joseph), b. 1747, d. 18 10. 

3. David. 



142 

4. Catharine Elizabeth, b. about 1 75 r , d. 1800, m. 
Joseph Herkimer, oldest son of Henry Herkimer. 

5. Anna ; nothing could be learned of her. 

6. Nicholas, b. 1760. 

For Peter Schuyler and Katharine Herkimer, see 
page 97, under Henry Herkimer's descendants. 

Of the descendants of Hon Yost I could learn 
nothing ; of David and Anna could learn nothing. 

Katharine Elizabeth Schuyler and Joseph Her- 
kimer's children are brought down in Page 98, under 
head of descendants of Joseph Herkimer and Kath- 
arine E. Schuyler. 

Nicholas Schuyler, b. 1760; had children. 

5th generation : 

1. Nicholas, b. 1796, m. Lydia Greene. 

2. Peter Schuyler. 

3. Henry Schuyler. 

4. George Schuyler. 

Nicholas Schuyler and Lydia Greene ; had children. 

6th generation : 

Felix, b. 1824, in. Francis Casler. 

George N. Schuyler. 

Nicholas Schuyler, of Danube, N. Y. 

3d generation : 

Gertrude Herkimer (dau. of Johan Jost), m. 1st 
Lt. Wormoth ; had one daughter. 

4th generation : 

Gertrude, m. Major John Frey ; taken prisoner at 
Oriskany. 



H3 

3d generation : 

Katharine Herkimer and George Henry Bell ; had 
children. 



4th generation : 

Nicholas; killed by the Indians. 
Joseph ; killed by the Indians. 



3rd generation : 

Mary Herkimer and Rev. Abraham Rosecrantz. 

4th generation : 

Son, Nicholas ; I could not learn the names of others 
but a descendant of Rev. Abraham and Mary Her- 
kimer Rosecrantz married the father of Mr. Peter 
Starring, of Little Falls, N. Y. 

3rd generation : 

Anna Herkimer and Peter Ten Broeck ; had son. 

4th generation : 

Nicholas, mentioned in General Herkimer's will. 
The descendants of the daughters of Johan Jost 
Herkimer. 

3rd generation : 

Delia Herkimer and Col. Peter Bellinger ; had 
children. 

4th generation : 

Frederick Bellinger. 

Gertrude, b. 1762, d. 1831, m. Nicholas Casler. 



144 

Catharine, m. ist Lt. Petry, killed at Oriskany ; in 
1784, m. 2d Johannes Bellinger. 

Catharine Bellinger and Lt. Petry, had one son. 

5th generation : 

Peter Bellinger Petrie, m. Elizabeth Foster. 
Catharine and Johannes Bellinger, had daughter. 

5th generation : 
Gertrude Bellinger. 

4th generation : 

Gertrude Bellinger and Nicholas Casler ; had 
children. 

5th generation : 

1. Peter Casler, m. Betsy Eysman. 

2. Delia Casler, m. Jacob Harter. 

3. Richard Casler, m. Jane Young. 

4. Robert Casler, m. Zina Zoller. 

5. Nicholas Casler, m. Polly Starring. 

6. Madaline Casler, m. Jacob Vrooman. 

5th generation : 

Peter Bellinger Petrie and Elizabeth Foster; had 
one child. 

6th generation : 

Hiram Herkimer Petrie, b. 18 12 ; has children. 

7th generation : 

Mary Ellen, m. Henry C. Tallman, Manistee, Mich. 
Florence, a teacher in Manistee. 



H5 

5th generation : 

Delia Casler and Jacob Harter ; children. 

6th generation : 

Gertrude Harter. 
Catharine Harter. 
Mary Harter. 

3d generation : 

Madaline (Lany) Herkimer, m. 1st Warner Dy- 
gert, son Peter S. Dygert ; he was killed at Oriskany ; 
she m. 2d Nicholas Snell ; their children. 

4th generation : 

Anna Dygert, m. Capt. Conrad Folts, b. 1747, 
d. 1793. 

Capt. Conrad Folts, son of Jacob Folts and Ger- 
trude Petrie. 

Anna Dygert and Conrad Folts ; had children. 

5th generation : 

1. Lt. Jacob C. Folts, b. 1775, m. Elizabeth Staly, 
daughter of (Steele) George Staly and Dorothea 
Shomaker. 

2. Warner Folts, d. 1837, m. Mary Getman, dau. 
of John Getman ; one son. 

6th generation : 

1. Daniel Folts, b. 1806, m. Mary Getman, dau. of 
Frederick Getman. 

2. Warner Folts. 

10 



146 

7th generation : 

Estella Folts, daughter of Warner Folts, m. Frank 
D. Callan. 

5th generation : 

Jacob Folts and Elizabeth Staly ; had children. 

6th generation : 

Madaline, b. 1796, d. 1873, m. Henry Dygert. 
Conrad, b. 1798, d. 1871. 
Dorothea, b. 1802, d. 1866, m. John Edick. 
George, b. 1804, d. 1870, m. Eliza Murray. 

Mary, b. 1807, d. , m. 1854, Mr. Rev. A. W. 

Seely. 

Descendants of Madaline Herkimer and Warner 
Dygert. 

6th generation : 

Children of Jacob Folts and Elizabeth Staly. 

Jacob, b. 1808, d. unmarried. 

Elizabeth, b. 181 1 ; unmarried. 

Benjamin, b. 18 13 ; twice married. 

Daniel, b. 181 5, m. Harriett Ellsworth Merrill. 

Col. John, b. 181 7, m. Mary Piper. 

David, b. 1822; m. Harriett House. 

3d generation : 

Elizabeth Herkimer and Captain Hendrick Frey ; 
had children. 

4th generation : 

Margaret, m. Captain Cochran. 

Margaret Frey and Captain Cochran ; had daughter. 



H7 

5th generation : 

Eliza, m. Alfred Conklin. 

Eliza and Alfred Conklin ; had son. 

6th generation : 

Roscoe Conklin, m. Miss Seymonr, dau. of Ex- 
Governor Seymour of New York. 



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